Immortals and Magicians
by Tigress of the Stars
Summary: Have you ever wondered, if immortality is real, then what other myths and stories are real as well? The immortals of New York are faced with this question when a mysterious girl appears in their midst with abilities even Maiza cannot completely explain. Contains CanonXoc.
1. Introduction

The door to the dusty old bookstore quietly creaked open. The only occupants of the room, a young man somewhere in his twenties and the elderly store keeper, glanced up at the sound of the door. A young woman had entered. She looked as though she could only be in her teens but something about the way she carried herself implied she was older than she appeared. She was short and slight of build with golden hair that hung down her back and light blue eyes that held surprising depth.

Just inside of the door the girl paused. She cast the old man a quick glance before letting her eyes settle on the young man.

Luck Gandor met her steady gaze with his own. He saw a look of curiosity pass across her face as she looked at him before slowly turning to examine the nearest bookshelf. Luck continued to examine the girl after she had turned her back to him. She did not look familiar and Luck was sure he would have remembered seeing such a small girl dress as she was in black pants, white dress-shirt, un-tucked, and long, black, sleeve-less coat.

Luck allowed his moment of curiosity to pass and he turned back to the bookshelf he had been examining. Recently Luck had been filling his spare moments with literature. Something to take his mind off of the unsettling thoughts and questions that he had begun to ask himself since the events of two years ago, thoughts that had become quite intrusive since the incident with the Runorata family that occurred about a year ago.

The store keeper nervously flipped through his newspaper as he sat behind the counter. It wasn't that long ago he saw, or thought he saw, Luck Gandor killed right in front of him. The old man thought he was starting to go senile, or at least he hoped so because the alternative was terrifying to contemplate. After a moment of silence that beat upon the old man's eardrums like thunder he spoke.

"Are you looking for anything in particular, Miss?"

The girl glanced up from the bookshelf where she had been examining titles.

"I am looking for a certain book, yes," she answered in a slightly cautious tone.

"What is the title, perhaps I could help you look," the store keeper continued.

"Oh, I don't know what it's called," the girl responded strangely.

"How can you find it if you don't know what it's called?" Luck asked, turning to look at the girl upon hearing her strange answer.

"I'll know it when I find it," the girl answered looking at Luck over her shoulder.

Great… another strange one…Luck thought to himself. It seemed as if his life had been filled with strange people lately. Deciding that he was in no mood to deal with any strangeness that day Luck turned and left the store without bothering to purchase a book.

After his departure the store keeper visibly relaxed. The girl glanced curiously from the old man to the blurred shape of Luck seen through the store window departing down the street.

Hmm, interesting… the girl though to herself.

Firo and Maiza walked together down the street, talking amicably about nothing in particular. Firo had run into Maiza on his way to the Alveare for lunch and the two decided to eat lunch together. The street they had taken to the Alveare passed a small park on the way. Park was a kind term. The plot of land contained a few benches, trees, bushes and grass, but appeared to be nature's last gasp in the metal and stone jungle of Manhattan. On any other day Firo would not have even glanced at the small patch of green if something else had not caught his attention, causing Firo to slow his pace to a near standstill.

A girl sat on a bench in the park, the sun shining off of her golden hair as she bent her head slightly over the guitar she held in her hands. It had not been her looks that had caught Firo's attention but her voice. Her fingers slid up and down the frets of the guitar as she sang an unusual song, very different from the jazz, blues or ragtime you might find someone else singing on the street. Seeing that Firo had slowed to a stop Maiza stopped as well, looking in the direction of Firo's gaze. The two stood still as they listened to her song echo across the street.

"An old man by a seashore at the end of day,

Gazes the horizon the sea winds in his face,

Tempest tossed island seasons all the same

Anchorage unpainted and a ship without a name

Sea without a shore for the banished one unheard

He lightens the beacon light at the end of world

Showing the way lighting hope in their hearts

The ones on their travels homeward from afar…"

The girl raised her head to meet the gaze of Maiza and Firo across the street. She continued singing, steadily holding their gaze with her own.

"This is the long forgotten light at the end of the world

Horizon crying the tears he left behind long ago…"

The girl had a strange look on her face. It was a mixture of curiosity, deep thought, and some sort of knowing. Maiza immediately felt that there was more to this girl than what met the eye. He highly doubted that she was an immortal like himself and Firo, yet there was something strange about her. Perhaps another alchemist, certainly the art hadn't completely died out? Either way Maiza felt that at the moment it was best for him and Firo to continue on their way and leave the girl alone. Maiza put a hand on Firo's shoulder and gently pulled him forward. The moment the two had begun to move the girl dropped her gaze back to the guitar as she continued to play.

Ennis leaned back against the bench, staring into the sky. She was pondering her existence again. When Firo was busy with camorra business and she was left alone Ennis could not help but find herself wandering through the corridors of the past, pondering her own actions when compared to the actions of those around her. Isaac and Miria had left, saying something slightly cryptic about doing good deeds for the sake of starving children. How could she, Ennis, who had done such terrible things only one short year ago possibly compare to such selfless people?

"Hey, do you mind if I sit here?"

A voice broke Ennis' depressed musings and brought her back to earth. When Ennis looked in the direction of the voice she saw a young woman with a slight build, blonde hair and sky blue eyes. She stood next to the bench, one hand clasping a paper sack, the other indicating the vacant space next to Ennis on the bench.

"Oh, yes… I don't mind," Ennis answered quietly, pondering why the girl had asked for her permission before sitting on a public bench.

"Thanks!" the girl said with a smile as she dropped onto the bench next to Ennis. Once seated the girl opened the paper sack and pulled out a meat pie, which she began to devour with relish.

Ennis looked sideways at the girl while she was eating, almost oblivious to Ennis' presence. Ennis was pondering over whether or not she should say something when a shout from a few yards away drew the attention of both women.

"Give it back!" cried a little girl as she reached into the air. She was trying desperately to get at a sandwich held in the hand of a boy who was a good head taller than her.

"Make me!" the boy taunted back as the girl tried to jump up and grab the sandwich back while the older boy dodged her.

The exchange lasted only five seconds when, before either Ennis or the girl could act, the boy tripped on the uneven pavement, the sandwich flying from his hand into the street. The girl froze, hands pressed over her mouth and tears forming in her eyes. The boy stopped staring at the now sad looking sandwich prostrated on the asphalt. The girl sniffled, tears beginning to drizzle down her cheeks. The boy, his source of entertainment now gone decided to leave in search of other distractions.

The girl next to Ennis stood and, discarding the paper sack onto the bench, walked to the girl.

"Here now, don't cry," she said, crouching down so she was eye level with the child.

"Bu-but th-that was my-my only lu-lunch," the girl sniffled.

"No it isn't," the blonde said, taking the young girl's hand and placing the meat pie in it.

The young girl's eyes widened and she stared at the young woman in disbelief.

"Bu-but isn't th-this y-your lunch?" she said, a few stray tears still tracing their way down her cheeks.

The young woman shook her head and smiled.

"It's alright," she told the girl. "Look," she pointed at the paper sack on the bench where Ennis sat. "I have another one in that bag right there."

"S-so it's r-really ok?" the girl asked, drying her tears.

"Yes," the young woman said. "And since you're being such a good girl, I'll tell you a little secret too."

The eyes of the young girl, if possible, widened even more.

"When boys pick on you like that," the woman said, leaning in close and lowering her voice slightly, as if imparting some great knowledge, "all you need to do is kick them between the legs and they will leave you alone."

"Really?" the girl asked.

"Really."

With a wave and a cheerful smile the girl ran off, the meat pie clutched against her chest like a dear treasure. The woman waved back momentarily before returning to the bench.

"That was very kind of you," Ennis said quietly. "I was good that you had two pies."

The young woman gave Ennis a sideways smile before turning the bag upside down and shaking it. It was empty. Ennis' eyes widened slightly in surprise, and before she could ask why the woman had given the child her only food, the woman spoke.

"She's young and still growing, she need it a lot more than me."

Ennis sighed sadly and stared down at her feet. Even this complete stranger is a much kinder person than I am, she thought.

"Hey," the girl said, turning her head sideways to try and see Ennis' down turned face. "Is something wrong?"

Ennis looked at the girl, and without meaning blurted out:

"I've done such terrible things. I can never hope to be so kind as Isaac or Miria… or even you…"

The girl smiled softly and placed her hand over Ennis' which rested on her lap. At the girl's touch Ennis looked up into her eyes.

"How about I tell you a secret too," the girl said in a kind voice. "I can see things that people don't or can't always show others. I can see down to the true nature of people, down to their hearts, so to speak. And I know that in your heart you are a kind person."

"I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken…" Ennis began but the girl shook her head to silence Ennis.

"Just the fact that you are so worried about returning the kindness of those around you proves that you are a kind person. Here, I'll share a favorite quote of mine. 'In the end it's the same, no one is as bad as they seem and no one is a good as they think they are'." She gave Ennis' had a slight squeeze. "Actions do not dictate our nature; even if you've done terrible things it does not make you a terrible person."

For the first time since Firo had left that morning Ennis managed a smile.

"Thank you," she said to the girl. "My name is Ennis, would you mind telling me yours?"

The girl smiled even broader as she answered:

"Star Auros."


	2. Chapter 1

Luck pulled the brim of his hat lower over his face against the setting sun as he left the family's basement headquarters. Discounting Maria's usual antics, the week had been fairly quiet. While from a logical standpoint an uneventful week was good, everything was operating smoothly and no one took it upon themselves to interfere in Gandor affairs. Luck was always grateful for peace and quiet for the family, but at the same time it caused him to feel uneasy inside. When his mind was not taken up by family business other obtrusive thoughts found their way in thoughts regarding himself and his immortality.

As Luck walked down the street, headed toward the apartment that he and his brothers had lived in and facing the thought of a night alone with nothing but his mind for company, something caught his attention. It was the sound of a guitar playing out a slow heavy melody accompanied by the clear, beautiful voice of a young woman.

"Shaded by the trees, calling out to the wind, I'm lying face-down crying

I saw a version of myself I didn't even recognize

On this guitar I'm playing the melody of someone who's passed on

A star falls in the grief of someone who will never be seen again

Please don't go, no matter how much you scream

All it will do is quietly stir these orange petals

Saved on my soft brow

I send the memories in my palm far away

An eternal farewell as I keep strumming"

Luck rounded the corner of the block and glanced to his left. The singer astonished him. Sitting on an upturned crate, one leg folded under the other, was the strange girl he had met a week ago in the bookshop. She was still dressed in the same unusual clothes as before, but she looked different this time.

Before, Luck had taken her for barely more than a child. The way she looked and the way she had acted had led him to believe such was the case. But seeing her now, Luck could not but believe she was indeed a young woman… a young woman who seemed to have learned too early how unremitting the world could be. Her voice and face as she played were heavy with emotion as she strongly and clearly vocalized memories that Luck, and the onlookers who had gathered around her, could feel but scarcely glimpse.

As Luck had turned the corner the tempo of the music picked up, the tone still sad, yet emanating strength from deep within, revealing a strong resolve.

"The heart of a child clinging to a gentle hand

The blazing wheels cast it off and continue on

On this guitar I'm playing the grief of someone who's passed on

The strings of my heart being plucked at violently

In the pure white unstained by sorrow

The orange petals stirred in a summer shadow

Even if my soft brow is lost

I'll cross over the far-off, red-stained sands

The rhythm of farewell

Branded into my memories, on the ever-turning earth

There is something sprouting in remembrance

Sending off the dawn's carriage

Those orange petals are stirring somewhere, even now

The peaceful daybreak I once saw

Until it is placed in my hands once more

Please don't let the light go out

The wheels are turning…"

Her fingers danced along the strings for a few more notes before ending with a flourish. Her serenade ended the young woman looked up at the people around her, smiling. A few clapped, some walked away, and a couple even tossed coins into the open guitar case. Then, the song finished, people began to drift away, towards homes or speakeasies… all except for three…

The young woman apparently did not see them, as she bent to collect the coins from the guitar case, the instrument itself leaning up against the crate. Luck watched as they began to advance towards the girl, his mind torn in two directions. Ruffians occasionally showed up and cause some mischief, but as long as the family's business wasn't interrupted, it wasn't much of an issued. But at the same time perhaps… perhaps it is better to nip some things in the bud. Or not, this was not family business, it wasn't his problem…

As Luck for one reason or another, pondered over these thoughts in his head the leader of the group of three spoke.

"Hey, toots," he said, leaning over her. "Instead of singing junk for coins why don't you come with us?"

The young woman sighed and looked up.

"One," she said, in a slightly tired voice, as if this was not the first time someone had tried to pick her up, "The name is Star, not 'toots', and two, refine your tastes in music before talking to me again."

The man's eye brow twitched, but he continued trying to sweet talk the girl. His two companions hanging back watching. Luck could tell by the way the stood and kept their hands in their pockets that both were probably carrying weapons. They were the muscle incase negotiation failed.

"Come on now," he said leaning a little closer, coating his voice in honey, "with your pretty face you can make a lot more money for a lot less work."

The girl looked up at him sharply.

"I'll help you out you know," the man continued, thinking he had her attention. "I'll ask for a cut of course, but…"

Luck decided to move. A mugging wasn't an issue, but Keith insisted on standards which included no organized drugs, and no organized prostitution. Besides, if they were left alone long enough, these people might begin to challenge the family in other areas as well, like gambling. But Luck had only taken two steps before the young woman's voice stopped them.

"Listen here, you leech," Star began, "If you were any good at whatever the hell it is you do, then you would not be soliciting for prostitutes in the good part of town. Now go home and find a real job so you stop failing at life."

The second half of the insult was lost on the man, but he and his companions understood the first part well enough.

"Why you-!" he began, grabbing Star by the lapels of her coat and jerking her to her feet, his fellow closing in behind him.

"I think that's enough," Luck said calmly, stepping forward. He wanted to stop this before it got out of hand and caused even more trouble.

Upon hearing Luck's voice everyone stopped and stared in his direction. The man's two companions had just removed their hands from their pockets confirming Luck's suspicion that they had been armed. One had brass knuckles and the other gripped a folding knife.

"We're just having a nice conversation… there isn't any need for anyone else to get involved," the man said, removing the edge his voice had developed at Star's refusal.

"Since when did talking at someone constitute a conversation?" Star asked him cynically.

"Shut up," the man said viciously as he struck Star across the face.

Luck began to move forward again. His thoughts flickered to the gun he carried concealed beneath his coat. He really didn't think he would need to use it against small time thugs like this, but it might prove useful to intimidate them into backing down.

"You don't seem to understand what I said," Luck said, still calm as he advanced.

Before he could continue the man wielding the brass knuckles blocked his path.

"Boss said butt out!" he shouted as he swung at Luck.

Luck managed to side step the first blow, but as he did so he heard a small crunch accompanied by two pings. He glanced down a realized he had stepped on the guitar. But Luck had only a moment to think about this before the brass knuckles man attacked again.

The leader smirked as he looked down at Star; sure the blow had cowed her. He was to be severely disappointed. Star turned her head to stare into the man's eye. The moment their eyes locked he had severe misgivings about the woman he had chosen for a target. Her eyes had changed from a soft sky blue to two hard chips of ice smoldering with cold fire.

Before the man had time to think of anything beyond the sudden change in her demeanor, Star acted. She thrust her arms between those of the man holding them and quickly jerked her own arms apart, breaking his grip on her coat. Just as quickly she brought her fist into the man's stomach. As he reflexively doubled over Star grabbed the man's head and thrust it down in the same instance she brought her knee up into his face.

As the leader fell to the ground, knocked out by a petite girl, the other man, who had unfortunately chosen Luck as his enemy, also collapsed to the ground, unconscious, with a few fractured bones and a severely broken face; this display of power had frightened off the third man who was nearly to the next block by the time Luck or Star had the chance to look for him.

Star watched the man go with slight curiosity in eyes. Luck could only think to himself that he hoped this scuffled had put these thugs in their place. He should probably arrange to have someone pay them a visit later and give them a 'friendly' reminder of whose territory there were on.

With the threat clearly neutralized Star turned to face Luck.

"I could have handled that myself, you know," she said in a neutral voice, as though stating a fact.

Luck felt his eye brow twitch but before he could say anything Star spoke again.

"But you did go out of your way to help me, so thank you," she finished.

"Don't take this the wrong way," Luck said, slightly thrown by her unusual reaction, "but I didn't have any intention of saving you. Idiots like that need to learn that they can't do whatever they like on Gandor turf."

Star nodded slightly, accepting this explanation when she focused on something behind Luck. Suddenly she rushed forward, nudging Luck out of the way.

"Oh, hell…" she said in a quiet voice, picking up her guitar. Half of the head had been crushed and two of the strings had snapped. Star sort of fell back onto the up turned crate, looking at the broken guitar in an extremely dejected way.

Luck watched her for a few moments. Two thoughts wrestling in his head; he had been the one to step on the guitar, but at the same time he had also stepped on it in the act of rescuing her…

Star sighed and slowly began to put the battered instrument back into its case.

"I'll have it fixed," Luck said in a quiet voice.

Damn, I really am too soft… he thought to himself.

"You don't need to do that," Star said, fastening the case closed, watching Luck out of the corner of her eye.

"I did break your guitar," Luck pointed out, wondering why he didn't just leave the girl alone after she had refused him.

"If you feel that bad about it, then you can buy me dinner and we'll call it even," Star said, giving Luck a faint smile.

Luck was slightly taken aback by her request. Although it was slightly odd, he couldn't exactly turn her down after he had offered his help. That wouldn't look too good for the family either, if Luck went back on his word.

"Fine then," Luck responded.

"Great!" Star said, with a wide smile, swinging her guitar onto her back.

Luck turned and began to walk down the street, thinking about the small pizzeria that was not too far from where they were. Star fell in step beside him.

"Oh yeah," Star said, as if she just thought of something. "I don't know your name."

Luck glanced at Star. If she didn't know who he was then she obviously wasn't from around here.

"Luck Gandor," Luck replied, looking forward again.

"I'm Star Auros," Star replied.


	3. Chapter 2

The streets of Manhattan sunk into dusk and the street lights began to flicker on. The window of the pizzeria glowed like movie screen against the darkening buildings. Luck and Star occupied a small table in the center of the window. To anyone on the street outside it would seem like a scene from a movie. The two were perfectly framed by the window and they seemed to be talking in an affable manner, each wearing a slight smile on their face, like when the hero and heroine first meet. Of course, if anyone watching could have heard the conversation they might have thought something different.

"You're new around here, I take it?" Luck asked Star as she bit into her pizza pie. It was covered with almost every topping available, except for onions and olives.

Star swallowed her giant bite of pizza before responding.

"Yeah, I've only been around for about five days or so…" Star answered.

"So what brings you to this corner of Manhattan?" Luck asked, continuing with the small talk. He wasn't sure if she meant to stay there permanently, but it might be a good idea to get a feel for who she was, assuming she would be hanging around for a while.

"A book," Star answered, taking another huge bite of pizza. She was clearly enjoying it.

It was then that Luck remembered their first meeting, she had been looking for a book that she did not know the title of.

"How are you going to find it if you don't know the title?" He asked.

Star looked up from her pizza for a moment, as if she had just remembered something.

"Oh yeah... you were that guy in the book store…" she said quietly. "Wow… I didn't even see it until now. Man, I must be losing my edge or something…" She took another bite of pizza.

Luck raised an eye brow, but decided not to pursue the topic.

"So why do you want this book, anyway?" Luck continued.

"It hit me in the head," Star answered.

Now that caught Luck off guard. He stared at Star as she ate, wondering if she was slightly mad or not.

"Let me get this right… the book hit you in the head? No one hit you in the head with a book?" Luck asked for clarification.

Star paused, a flash of panic crossing her face. But it disappeared just as quickly before Star answered the question.

"Well… I didn't really see who threw it… But since they threw it at me I figured I'd find it and keep it."

Luck narrowed his eyes. He knew a cover story when he heard one. Star wasn't looking for the book out of petty vengeance. But the way she described it, the book hit her, as though the book had been moving of its own will. This girl… young woman… Star Auros… something about her was strange, she was definitely hiding something. She answered his questions, but at the same time did not reveal anything about herself at all.

Star had returned to what was left of the decimated pizza, avoiding Luck's eyes.

"So what are you going to do after you find this book?" Luck pressed on. Of course what she was hiding could be nothing significant at all. But something about her unsettled him. She didn't seem normal. And so far, 'not normal' had meant plenty of trouble for the family.

"Go home," Star answered, working on what was left of the crust.

"And where is home?"

"Virginia."

Virginia. It was a long way to come for a book. But wait… didn't she say she wanted the book because it hit her in the head? When did that happen, or rather where? If she had come all the way to New York chasing after a book thrown at her then that was a vindictiveness that Luck would prefer not to be on the receiving end of. But if it had happened here in New York, then what had brought her here in the first place?

Luck was about to ask Star who she was and what she was really doing in Manhattan when suddenly her head snapped up and she looked strait past him. The look in her eyes had changed. They were piercing and alert. He remembered seeing a similar look on Firo's face when he was about to get serious in a fight.

"Ah. It's those idiots again. And they brought company," She said, stuffing the last piece of pizza crust into her mouth.

"Who?" Luck asked feeling even more confused than before.

"Those idiots from before," Star said, still staring behind Luck. "The one that ran off got reinforcements. Does this place have a back door?"

Luck looked behind him, expecting to see the punks from before, but no one was there. Luck slowly turned back to Star to find her standing, slinging her guitar over her shoulder.

"No one's there…" Luck began.

"Outside," Star answered. "And honestly, I've had enough trouble for one day. This place does have a back entrance, right?"

"Yes, it does…" Luck said. "But how did you…?"

"Call it a sixth sense," Star said with a wink. Then she turned on her heel and left.

Luck felt too stunned to stay anything and by the time he recovered Star had disappeared through the kitchen and most likely out the back door soon after that. Shaking his head slightly Luck paid for the pizza and walked to the door.

As Luck reached for the door knob he suddenly paused. They're outside… that's what Star had said. Probably getting ready to ambush whoever came through the door first. Luck sighed. It looked like he would have to arrange to have someone teach those punks a lesson. He reached into his coat and gripped the gun hidden there before grasping the door knob and swinging the door open.

Luck stepped out into the cool night air, and for a moment everything was quiet. But then he noticed movement in the ally right next to the pizzeria. It was indeed the three from before, plus four others. That meant seven in total, which were not good odds.

"Hey," the leader from before said, coming forward, a rough bandage across his nose which was clearly broken.

"You don't seem to understand what you are doing," Luck said calmly as the group advanced on him.

"I understand just fine," the punk stated, pulling a gun out of his pocket and waving it slightly in what was supposed to be a menacing manner. "We're looking for the bitch from before, and you're going to tell us where she is."

Luck turned to face the gang. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could say anything there was a flash of silver and suddenly the gun, and a few of the man's fingers, was missing.

"Looks like you're having some trouble, amigo!"

Standing between Luck and the punks was a young Spanish girl dressed is a rather loud costume. In her right hand she held a katana, still strait out from the swing. At her waist was another katana.

"Wh-what the hell!" The man demanded, clutching at his mangled hand with his other one. The men behind him checked their advance.

"Maria…" Luck said, slightly stunned by the assassin's unexpected appearance. Of course at the moment he didn't quite care why Maria was there, all he knew is that it saved him the trouble of dealing with the band of lowlifes himself. "These men here think they can do whatever they want on Gandor turf."

"Really?" Maria asked, looking over her shoulder, her sword finally lowered. "Does that mean I get to slash them?"

The gang of misfits before Luck and Maria appeared cowed. One or two near the back appeared to be trying to sneak away.

"Yeah," Luck answered his voice suddenly cold. "We can't have people thinking they can do anything they want."

"Ok, amigo," Maria answered. She faced the group once again, this time a smile across her face and a spark of joy in her eyes.

Compared to Maria, the face of every man in the group visibly paled, fearful of the apparent joy on the face of the young woman who was about to cut them down. Nothing held them back anymore. The entire group turned and ran, the leader leaving a spotty trail of blood and he fled with the others down the street. Maria crouched, prepared to give chase, but Luck suddenly stopped her.

"Leave them," Luck said.

"What?" Maria cried, turning back to face Luck, confused. "I thought you said I could slash them."

"Small fry like that aren't worth it," Luck said as he turned to leave. He doubted that those punks would be causing trouble again anytime soon.

"No fair…" Maria said disappointedly as she sheathed Murasamia.

Luck made his way down the darkened street, heading back to his apartment, thinking longingly of going to sleep and temporarily forgetting the craziness of the day. But his walk home was not going to be quiet.

"So amigo," Maria said, catching up to Luck and giving him a knowing smile. "Who was the chica you were talking to?"

Luck glanced sideways at Maria but did not stop walking. He was surprised that Maria had been watching his conversation with Star.

"She was no one," Luck commented in an off handed manner.

Maria pouted slightly, upset that her question had not drawn a bigger reaction.

"You're no fun," Maria commented before peeling away, apparently off to find something more entertaining… or just something to slash. With Maria there wasn't too big of a difference.

I'm not supposed to be 'fun'… Luck thought to himself as he made his way home alone.


	4. Chapter 3

The day was warm and sunny, a perfect spring day. Ennis walked down the street, a large bag of groceries in each arm. She often offered to run errands for Firo while he was at work. Ennis was contemplating what to cook for dinner when she rounded a corner and, lost in thought and partially blinded by the large bags, she ran into someone. The two people and groceries fell to the ground.

"Ah, I'm sorry…" Ennis began when she looked up and saw who she had run into.

"Star!" She cried, seeing the young blonde push herself onto her knees, massaging the arm that she had landed on.

"Oh!" Star cried, seeing who she had collided with. "Ennis!"

Upon seeing the scatter groceries, Star immediately busied herself with gathering up the nearest items.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized as she helped Ennis gather up the spilled groceries.

"I should be the one to apologize," Ennis said. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"I wasn't either," Star admitted as stood up, picking up one of the refilled bags. "Here, at least let me carry this."

"Oh no, you don't need to do that," Ennis said, slightly flustered, clutching the second bag.

"No, really," Star said. "I have nothing better to do right now."

"Well, if you really don't mind…" Ennis trailed off, and seeing as how Star wasn't about to protest, she began to walk back to Firo's apartment.

"Are you feeling any better?" Star asked, as the two of them walked together.

"Better…?" Ennis said, slightly confused. Being immortal she didn't get sick so she wasn't sure what Star meant.

"The other day," Star said. "You were pretty depressed, but you look like you're feeling much better now."

"Oh, that," Ennis said. "I should apologize for that. I didn't even know you but I placed all of my troubles on you…"

"I don't mind at all," Star said with a smile. "After all, keeping feelings like that inside isn't healthy and sometimes it's just easier to talk to someone you don't particularly know."

"Um… right…" Ennis didn't quite understand what Star meant but she decided not to question it.

In a few moments they arrived at Firo's apartment building. Ennis opened the door and led the way up the stairs to the second floor where Firo lived. They stopped in front of the apartment door as Ennis took a key from her pocket and unlocked the door.

"Czes, I'm home," Ennis said as she walked through the door.

"Who's Czes," Star asked curiously as she followed Ennis into the apartment.

"He's my little brother," Ennis said, giving Star the story she and Firo and come up with to explain the sudden appearance of a young child in the apartment.

"Hello, Ennis," Czes said, coming from his room which was just off of the living room.

Ennis continued on to the kitchen but Star stopped, almost frozen in place. She stared at Czes, clearly startled. After all, Ennis had introduced him as her younger brother. The look on Star's face wasn't lost on Czes; it obviously wasn't a normal reaction to meeting someone's younger brother.

"Wh-what…?" Star said in a soft, barely audible voice.

"Star?" Ennis called from the kitchen.

"Coming," Star called, quickly hiding her shock with a smile. "It was nice to meet you, Czes."

Star turned her back on Czes and entered the kitchen. Czes frowned at Star's retreating back, his face stormy. She suspects something, Czes thought to himself. That look on her face wasn't normal. She might know something… could she be an immortal too? Czes thought he had found out about the new immortals from Maiza, but it was also possible that someone else could have discovered the Grand Panacea, after all Szilard had managed to do it. Of course since Ennis had already revealed Czes' real name the simplest way to confirm whether Star was immortal or not, trying to use a false name, was now closed to him. But if there's someone she hasn't met yet… Czes decided to stop by the Alveare tomorrow and talk to Maiza.

In the kitchen Star quickly sat the bag of groceries down on the table.

"I didn't know you had a younger brother," Star commented in an off handed manner.

"Oh, yes, he came to live with me a year ago," Ennis said, "Umm, some relatives were watching him in Chicago until a little while ago…"

Ennis hoped Star wouldn't ask any more questions that she wasn't prepared to answer. Ennis was just now realizing that she, Czes and Firo had neglected to come up with some important details in the story of how Czes came to join them.

"That's nice," Star answered vaguely.

"Yes," Ennis replied. Then, wanting to change the subject she asked: "Do you have a brother?"

Star paused, her eyes suddenly unfocused, as though looking at something far away.

"Yeah…" She said, quietly. "I had a little brother…"

Had…? Ennis thought. But before she could ask anything else Star shook her head slightly and spoke.

"Well, it was nice seeing you again… and meeting Czes," she said, a slightly forced smile on her face. Then, without waiting for Ennis to reply Star let herself out of the apartment.

Once outside of the apartment Star leaned against the wall and let out a breath. She stared up at the ceiling and thought to herself: I'm beginning to wonder if my presence here is a coincidence or not… She heaved another sigh and made her way down the stairs.

About halfway down, lost in her thoughts, Star bumped into someone.

"Oh, excuse me," she said, looking up suddenly.

"No problem," Firo answered, "But you really should watch where you're going."

"Yeah, I will," Star said, giving him a strained smile before continuing down the stairs.

Firo stood still and watched her go.

"Didn't I see her somewhere before?" he asked himself and, not coming up with an immediate answer, shrugged and continued up to his apartment.


	5. Chapter 4

The sky was a deep, steely, grey to rival the murky color of the Hudson. Star stood next to the river, the warehouses at her back, and stared at the expanse of water in front of her. The rain clouds had brought with them cold and Star's breath misted as her expression changed from mild hope to disappointment.

"I forgot…" she muttered to herself, "This river won't be clean for a while yet…"

She sighed as her stomach rumbled in protest. She shifted her guitar on her back and turned away.

"So much for free dinner…"

As Star contemplated what to do next drops of water fell from the sky, first a sprinkling but is soon turned into a down pour. Star cursed and threw her arms over her head in a futile gesture as she ran for the nearest shelter, which happened to be a warehouse with its door ajar. Star threw her weight against the door, opening it up a few feet before ducking inside and pulling the door closed behind her.

Once inside Star heaved a sigh and tried to shake the damp from her hands and wring it from her hair. After her vain attempts at drying herself Star turned to examine the building into which she had taken shelter in. It was filled with a preponderance of old machinery that looked as though it had last seen service a decade ago. But despite the decrepit look, the space felt much warmer than outside. Star took a few steps into the building and then stopped at the sound of faint voices coming from behind the old machines.

"Hey, Jacuzzi," Nick said as Jacuzzi and Nice entered the warehouse through a door at the other end of the building.

"How're things going?" Nice asked. Nick and Donny had been left to mind the moonshine stills hidden in old warehouse.

"Good, we're almost done," Nick answered as Donny moved two newly filled jugs from the still over towards the other already filled ones near the far wall, Nick quickly replaced the jugs with two new ones.

"That's good," Jacuzzi said, looking slightly nervous. "We need to move these soon, otherwise they'll…"

Jacuzzi trailed off at the sound of metal on concrete. Everyone in the warehouse turned to look back at the maze of machines and pipes that occupied the majority of the warehouse.

"Um… hi…" Star said awkwardly, peeking out from behind a massive pipe that led from a machine on the floor to the ceiling.

There was a moment of complete and utter silence which was followed by a strange sort of strangles sob coming from Jacuzzi.

"Oh no!" He said, tears forming in his eyes. "Someone founds us! Wh-what are we g-gonna do now?"

"Wh-whoa!" Star said, coming out from behind the pipe and holding her hands up. "Calm down! I'm not going to out you or anything!"

"Y-you're not?" Jacuzzi sniffled.

"How do we know you won't talk?" Nice said, suspicious of the sudden appearance of Star. Nick and Donny stood off to one side, ready for action if they were needed.

"Look, I really don't care if you make moonshine or not. I think prohibition is stupid anyway… not that it'll be around much longer…" She added the last part under her breath.

"I-I think the same thing!" Jacuzzi said, his tears beginning to subside a bit. "Th-that's why…" his voice trailed off as he glanced at the still.

"That's all well and good," Nice said, still slightly suspicious, "but we don't have any guarantee that you won't get the cops as soon as your outta here."

"Um… then let's do this," Star said, trying to make a deal. "We'll make a deal, you let me sleep here tonight and I won't tell anyone."

"What?" Jacuzzi said, "Why would anyone want to sleep here?

The others were immediately on their guard. After all, if they agree then she would be left over night, alone, with the still and all the other equipment. It would be the perfect chance to sabotage their operation.

"It's warmer here than outside," Star answered simply.

"Huh?" Jacuzzi felt a little confused. Obviously it was warmer because of the still, but why would she want to sleep in a warm warehouse… unless… unless she didn't have somewhere else to sleep.

"Wh-what a minute," Jacuzzi said. "Are you saying you're homeless?"

Star smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

"I wouldn't say 'homeless' I do have a house… just… not here…"

"But-!" Jacuzzi began when a loud gurgling rumble filled the space between the two. Star's face flushed and she looked at the wall, embarrassed.

"Sorry… I-um… haven't had… anything to eat… yet…"

"You mean no breakfast or lunch?" Jacuzzi asked. Behind him Nice placed her hand over her face and closed her eyes. She could already see where this was going.

"B-but that's just terrible! What if you can't get anything to eat? You could get sick, die even!" Jacuzzi was beginning to panic slightly.

"Look, it really isn't-" Star began but Jacuzzi cut her off.

"You gotta come back with us!" Jacuzzi declared.

"What?" Everyone, including Star, cried at once.

"W-well I mean," Jacuzzi began to explain, "She-she doesn't have a home or food… it's just terrible…" He looked like he might begin to cry again.

Nice just sighed. Inviting Star along would be easier than trying to deal with Jacuzzi and his misplaced worries. Besides, Jacuzzi just wanted to put up with her for one day, it wouldn't be that difficult, and then they could find out if she really would go to the police or not.

"Are you… sure?" Star asked, a questioning look on her face.

Nice and Nick shot Star a suspicious look. She had just been handed a warm bed and a hot meal, but she looked like she might turn it down. Donny, meanwhile, went back to tending the still, since Jacuzzi seemed to be alright with the stranger and it didn't look like there was going to be any trouble.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Jacuzzi asked, surprised as Nice and Nick.

"Hmm," was Star's response as she moved closer. She stopped about three feet from Jacuzzi and then closed her eyes, her head cocked to one side, almost as if she was listening to a silent voice. When she opened her eyes after a long and awkward moment she was smiling.

"You're a very good person," she said quietly. "Thank you… for the offer. I accept."


	6. Chapter 5

Jacuzzi, Nice and Star sat at a scarred and worn table in the kitchen of the Genoard mansion. Fang, with the help of a few other members of Jacuzzi's gang, was just finishing dinner. Jacuzzi and Star were trading small talk when Chane entered the room.

"Chane, you're just in time to eat," Nice said, noticing the girl enter.

Chane nodded at Nice, acknowledging her statement before fixing Star with a piercing stare. Chane could observe from the scene that Star had been accepted by Jacuzzi, but she was still and unknown and Chane wanted to be sure that the stranger at the table did not mean any harm to Jacuzzi and his gang or her father.

"Ah, Chane," Jacuzzi said, noticing her entrance into the room. "This is Star, we just met her today."

"Hi," Star said, smiling and raising a hand in brief greeting.

Chane took a few steps further into the room, her eyes still fixed on Star.

"I don't think she likes me," Star said sheepishly to Jacuzzi.

"Chane can't speak," Jacuzzi explained.

"Ooooh," Star answered realization dawning on her face. Then she turned to face Chane, still smiling and placed her hand next to her head, her palm facing out and fingers together, before drawing her hand away from her head in a slow arch.

Chane stared, confused about what Star had just done.

"What was that?" Nice asked, just as confused as Chane.

"Oh?" Star said in surprise. "You mean she doesn't know sign language?"

"What's sign language?" Jacuzzi asked.

Chane took a few steps closer, curious herself.

"It's a way for people to communicate using their hands," Star explained. "It's usually used by people who can't hear, but since your friend can't speak I thought she knew sign language."

"Talking with your hands…?" Jacuzzi trailed off, processing the thought before his face broke out in a huge grin. "This is great Chane! Now you can learn to talk!"

Jacuzzi seemed happy but Chane felt slightly reserved. Learning how to communicate without pen and paper would be great, but at the same time learning how to speak with her hands might defeat the very purpose of having given up her voice in the first place. Would she still be able to protect Huey's secrets if she could easily communicate with others?

Nice noticed the serious look on Chane's face and spoke up.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to, you know," she said.

Chane looked up at Nice and gave her a faint smile.

"She's right," Star said, "I'm going to be around here for a while, it looks like. If you change your mind just find me."

Then, before anyone else could say anything Fang announced that dinner was ready. Once the table was set everyone dug in. Aside from someone asking to be passed the salt or pepper talking was kept to a minimum until the meal was finished.

"I don't remember the last time I had a meal that good," Star said, leaning back in her chair, a content smile on her face.

"Fang is a great cook," Nice acknowledged.

Jacuzzi glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. Nice glanced at Jacuzzi and their eyes met. With a slight nod both got to their feet. Chane, catching the exchange, got to her feet as well. She knew where they were going and wished to go along herself, just in case there was a problem.

"Um, Star," Jacuzzi began, "we, uh, we have to go and take care of some business…"

Before he could finish Nice spoke up.

"Weren't they looking for some help, too?" Nice said.

"What?" Jacuzzi answered, looking slightly confused. He didn't know what Nice was talking about.

"I saw the guitar," Nice said to Star, nodding at the instrument propped up in a corner of the room.

"Someone's looking for a musician?" Star asked, suddenly looking interested.

"Something like that," Nice answered. "I think they want someone who can play piano…"

"Oh yeah," Jacuzzi said, finally realizing what Nice was talking about. "They're opening up a bar and they want someone to play the piano to entertain patrons."

"I can definitely play the piano," Star answered. "So who's looking?"

"We'll take you to them," Nice answered. "We need to drop something off anyway."

Half an hour later Nice, Jacuzzi, Nick, Chane and Star stood at the back entrance to a small bar. Donny had been left behind to guard the still. Even though everyone knew that prohibition would end soon, liquor was still illegal to make and sell. Jacuzzi knew that when the time came he and the rest of his gang would need to work out new arrangements with the Martillo and Gandor families, or hope that the Russo family was gone for good so they could move back to Chicago.

Jacuzzi tried his best to put the thoughts from his mind for the moment as he knocked on the door before pushing it open. Nice, Nick and Star carried in the crates to the back room. The room had the look of an office-like space. There were a few tables with chairs scattered about. At one table there were three men playing cards. Against the right side of the room stood simple desk with a lamp sitting on it and a couch pushed up against the wall. The left side of the room was relatively bare except for a few wooden crates, some empty some full. Beyond the door opposite the quartet came the clattering sounds of a kitchen in operation and the faint waft of voices shouting commands and orders to each other. There was a feeling of long preparations finally coming to an end.

"Excuse me," Jacuzzi said as they came through the door.

One of the men playing cards looked up.

"Put them by the wall," he said gesturing to the left side of the room. Instead of returning to his card game, thought, he watched them, or more accurately Star, as they moved the crates of liquor to the designated space. Once the crates had been set down, the man waited for the four to turn around before he spoke again.

"I don't remember you," he said nodding to Star.

"I heard you're looking for a pianist," Star said, not the least bit flustered by the menacing look of the men at the table.

"We are," he acknowledged. "My name in Nicholas."

"My name is Star Auros," Star responded holding out her hand. Nicholas shook it.

"Are you sure you're auditioning for the right instrument?" Nicholas asked, nodding at the guitar on Star's back that she had brought with her.

"I can play multiple instruments," Star responded. "A guitar is just easier to carry around. Get me a piano and I'll show you what I can do."

"Right this way then," Nicholas responded, gesturing to the door. He politely held it open for Star and the two walked down a narrow hallway. On the right was the kitchen, on the left a bathroom. The hallway ended in a large room that took up most of the building's first floor. Along the right hand wall was a bar with a window giving access to the kitchen. Tables were spread about the room in a rather haphazard fashion but instead of making the place look cluttered it gave the room a casual feel. A piano stood in the left corner of the room underneath its own light. The tables were set a ways back from the piano so that, if needed, the space could accommodate other musicians and instruments.

Star spied the piano and immediately made her way over to it. She removed the guitar from her back and leaned it against the wall. She removed the sleeveless coat that she wore and draped it over one end of the piano bench. Star then sat at the piano and took a moment to crack the joints in her fingers. She wiggled them a little bit, loosening the muscles before the lightly placed her hands on the keys. She played a few chords, checking to make sure the piano was in tune before she launched into a beautiful, yet slightly lonely, song.

"A piano decorated by a single, tiny seashell of the ocean

Looks like a single bottle of soda

The music notes spill out

'What is it you yearn for?' my heart cries out

When all of my love is drained

It already reaches the ocean's bottom, so far away

The sound of waves invites me

Playing this blue piano

Reminds me of the dying spring

And I reminisce about how I used to have such fun"

Here she paused slightly. Nicholas thought the song was over but before he could speak Star launched into a piano solo. For nearly a full half minute Star played only, her body swaying gently as she leaned into the strokes her fingers made against the keys. Her eyes held a distant look, as if she were seeing something from a dream. The way she moved it seemed as though her body were an extension of the piano, being moved by the music rather than creating it.

"I can't play your favorite song ever again

I can no longer see the music notes that you taught me

'You yearn for love' my heart cries out

I'm still waiting for that soft hand on my shoulder

Alone

The sound of the waves invites me

As the cords get closer and farther apart

These fingers spin nothing but sad songs

The sound of the waves gathers and returns

Playing this blue piano reminds me of the dying spring

I reminisce about the palm of your hand"

With a few finishing cords Star allowed her hands to gently slide from the keys. Slowly she turned to face Nicholas and now Jacuzzi, Nice, Nick and the other men who had been in the room. They had all come to the room to listen to Star play.

Star turned on the piano bench to look at her small audience.

"Well?" she asked.

There was a moment of silence. Then Jacuzzi began to tear up.

"That was –sniff- so beautiful –sniff- and sad…"

"You do have talent," Nicholas admitted, walking up to Star. "I would like to hire you on the spot."

"But?" Star prompted.

"But," Nicholas continued, "Your music is a little… unusual. I'm not sure if bar patrons would like it. Perhaps you could play something more popular?"

Star thought for a moment.

"I'm not really familiar with popular music," she admitted. "But if I can see some sheet music, or hear the song played I can learn it."

"That's good," Nicholas said. Then he paused and looked Star up and down before continuing. "But if you're going to work here you'll need to wear something… nicer."

"Unfortunately I don't have anything 'nicer'" Star replied.

Nicholas looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I can arrange something," he said. "But it will come out of your pay."

"Fine," Star said with a small shrug, as though it did not much matter to her.

"Then consider yourself hired," Nicholas said, holding out his hand. Star grasped it in her own and the shook hands for a moment. Then Star picked up her coat and guitar and walked back to Jacuzzi, Nice and Nick.

"You've got a real good set of pipes," Nice commented.

"Thanks," Star replied with a smile.

Jacuzzi's tears had subsided and the four of them left the building together.

"I really do think it'll be alright for you to stay with us," Jacuzzi said. "I mean, since you don't have anywhere else to go."

Star smiled. She had a sad, pained look on her face, as if Jacuzzi's offer had touched an open wound.

"No, thank you," Star replied politely. "I have my reasons for living the way I am now. I really don't want to change that."

Jacuzzi looked upset and was about to protest when Nick spoke up.

"Then how about you stay when it's raining?" He asked.

"Yeah," Nice said. "That way Jacuzzi's happy and you're happy."

"But you better come!" Jacuzzi added. Despite having just met Star he was truly worried about her well-being.

"Thank you," Star replied with a smile, the sad and pained look not completely gone from her face. "I really owe you, I mean it. Any time you're in trouble, no matter what, come find me, ok?"

"Alright," Jacuzzi nodded in response.


	7. Chapter 6

Luck made his way calmly though the back hallway of the bar. Opening night had been last week and he was stopping by to see how well business was going. Somehow Nicholas had managed to find a pianist at the last minute. It was a stroke of good fortune. From what he heard opening night had been a success. Luck could hear Moonlight Serenade coming from the doorway. Luck stepped though the doorway and surveyed the room with an expert eye.

Every other table in the room was filled with groups of twos or threes. Everyone had at least one drink on the table, if not something to eat. This was good. It would be better if more tables were filled, but since the place had only been open a little over a week it would take some time for word to get around. But for now this was a decent showing.

After he had looked over the room Luck turned to his right and made his way towards Nicholas who was sitting at a table that was slightly separate from the others. He was observing how the patrons were acting, seeing what was popular and what wasn't to fine tune services to increase the bar's popularity.

Luck took a seat in an empty chair next to Nicholas.

"Things seem to be going well," Luck commented to Nicholas.

"They are," Nicholas replied as he gestured to a waiter to bring Luck a drink. "If this keeps up we might be able to have a full bar almost every night."

"That's good," Luck said as the waiter placed a drink and a napkin before him.

Luck took a sip from his drink as Nicholas gave him a rundown of the events of the first week and projections for the next few weeks. Luck listened to this as he coolly observed the bar patrons. The bar would be closing soon; the bartender had just issued the last call.

Luck glanced over at the piano. The pianist's back was to him, but from what he could see she was quite petite. Her long golden hair shone beautifully under the spotlight, especially against the blue of her dress. She swayed gently with the music. Now she was playing a piano solo as the bar slowly emptied of people. Luck found himself idly wondering what she looked like.

"She writes her own music too," Nicholas commented upon seeing where Luck attention was fixed. "She's a fantastic player, but her songs are a little… unusual…"

"They say geniuses are eccentric," Luck said turning back to Nicholas.

"Eccentric is definitely accurate," Nicholas commented. "Would you like to speak to her?"

"Sure," Luck responded. It would be good to get a read on this girl if she was going to be working for the family.

Nicholas caught a bus boy as he passed at told him to fetch the pianist, then settled back to wait. Luck raised to glass to his lips as he watched the employees begin to clear off tables and put chairs in order around the bar.

"Well hello again," came an uncomfortably familiar voice.

Luck choked into his drink and looked up. Star stood beside him, her hands clasp innocently behind her back. She wore a blue and silver dress cut short above the knee in the newest style. A sash with a large diamond shaped accent was slung at a seductive angle around her waist. The collar of the dress was cut low for the time revealing a slight bit of cleavage while inch wide silver straps held the dress on her body.

"You…" was all Luck could manage at seeing the very person who had occupied his thoughts the last few days so suddenly.

"Yes, me," Star replied calmly before shifting her attention to Nicholas. "I'm going to change, these heels are killing me."

Nicholas nodded, bemused by Luck's expression.

"You know her?" Nicholas asked after Star had left.

"I've run into her a few times," Luck said, looking though the doorway that Star had so recently vanished though.

Nicholas was about to ask Luck if he could elaborate a bit on the kind of person Star was, but before Nicholas could even open his mouth Luck stood and followed Star thought the door leading into the back room.

As Luck slowly advanced towards the back room he brain turned over his thoughts from the last few days. Star was definitely unusual. A girl wearing pants and playing music in the street for money was odd enough, but that wasn't the part that concerned Luck the most. He remembered the night in the pizzeria, how she had known those the same men from before were lying in wait for an ambush. They hadn't passed in front of the pizzeria and there were no windows on that side of the building. Logically there was no way she could have known. But beyond that there was something about Star that just bothered Luck. And that crazy story she had told about why she was there. Star made Luck feel unsettled, as if everything she had said and done up until now was some sort of façade and that much deeper and darker lurked behind that childish smile of hers.

The back room was empty when Luck reached it. After learning that Star was the pianist, the curtained off corner of the room suddenly made sense, Star was using it as a changing room. As if to confirm Luck's suspicions Star appeared from behind the curtain attired in her usual clothes.

Star was slinging a small bag across her shoulder when she noticed Luck. They locked eyes for a moment before Star turned towards the back door.

"What are you doing here?" Luck asked. The question came out awkwardly. Somehow Star was able to ruffle the seemingly unflappable Luck.

Star paused and turned toward Luck.

"I needed the money," she answered.

A perfectly normal answer Luck thought to himself. He was trying to convince himself that his feelings about Star were absurd. Sure, the tiny girl in from of him might be a little crazy, but some of the best people who worked for the Gandor family weren't exactly right in the head, Tick, Maria and Claire being a few. Why should she be any different? Just as Luck had almost succeeded in convincing himself that Star was a normal, if slightly crazed, person, Star spoke and shattered that thought into pieces.

"You're really tense, you know," she said, her back to Luck again as she reached for the door.

Luck felt himself begin to sweat.

"You don't need to worry about me so much," she continued turning the door knob and opening the door.

Luck felt like something heavy had just dropped into his stomach.

"It's not like I can do any real damage to you anyway," she said over her shoulder as she exited the building, letting the door fall shut behind her.

The sound of the door closing echoed through the room like a church bell through a cemetery and for the first time since Luck gained immortality he felt himself in the grip of cold fear.


	8. Disclaimer

Disclaimer:

I cannot write songs to save my life. The songs used in this story are taken from my favorite artists. I will cite them in the order that they occur in the story. This list will be updated with each subsequent chapter.

Chapter 1:

The Islander by Nightwish

Chapter 2:

Akatsuki no Kuruma by FictionJunction Yuuka

Chapter 5:

Piano by FictionJunction Yuuka

Chapter 7:

Who Knows by Avril Lavigne


	9. Chapter 7

"So… I'm not really sure what to think," Ennis finished.

"Hmm," Star leaned back against the bench, deep in thought.

Ennis had felt still felt troubled by the events that had taken place at the mist wall, particularly Firo's worry over her wellbeing. Ennis had no experience with such relationships and was not sure why Firo had acted the way he did and what she, Ennis, should do in response. The day was comfortably warm and Ennis found herself wandering towards to park as she pondered these thoughts. Once there she had seen Star and decided to ask for advice. She had tried to ask others, but they seemed to skirt the issue for some reason. Of course they had been good friends and associates of Firo before Ennis had shown up so it stood to reason that they would put Firo's wellbeing a head of hers, but Ennis could not stop puzzling over Firo's actions and her own feelings about them. Since Star had no connection to Firo or the Martillo family she seemed a good person for Ennis to get a decent answer from.

"Well…?" Ennis asked timidly after a moment. She wasn't sure of Star could give her a useful answer at this point or not. After all, Ennis could not come out and say that Firo was immortal and she is a homunculus. Ennis had done the best she could to explain her relation with Firo while leaving out the parts that would seem impossible.

"To be honest, I'm not the best person to ask about relationships," Star said sheepishly, blushing slightly. "But I'll give you the best answer I can. Firo thinks of you as a really special person that he cares for really deeply…"

Ennis cut Star off.

"That's what I don't understand. I mean, I know we are friends but…"

"I told you this before Ennis," Star said firmly. "No matter what you may believe about yourself you are a very good person inside. People would naturally like you for that reason."

Ennis nodded slightly and waited for Star to continue.

"Anyway, like I was saying, you're very important to Firo. But… there are a lot of different ways a person can be important to someone, so I can't say what kind of important you are to Firo."

"Oh…" Ennis replied. She had been hoping for an answer that was more straight-forward.

"Don't look so down," Star replied. "To be honest, no one ever really has an answer for this. Relationships are always complicated, I don't know why but they just are. I think the reason that no one you've talked to so far has given you an answer is because they don't want to interfere. They just want to let things take their own course."

Star leaned forward and squeezed Ennis's hand reassuringly.

"But I can tell you this," she continued. "Firo likes you for you. Just keep being yourself and everything should turn out alright, even if you don't always understand it all."

Ennis smiled at Star. The two of them sat in silence for a few moments before a thought dawned on Ennis.

"I don't think I ever asked you why you're always here," she said.

"Oh, that's easy," Star said with a smile before reaching behind the bench and pulling her guitar around. "This is a good place to make some money."

"You play music?" Ennis asked, curious.

"Yep," Star answered, strumming the guitar a few times before tightening the strings so the guitar was in tune. "Want to hear a song?"

"Sure," Ennis replied. After all, it was the least she could do since Star had listened to her story so patiently and did her best to give advice.

"Why do you look so familiar?

I could swear that I have seen your face before

I think I like that you seem sincere

I think I'd like to get to know you a little bit more

I think there's something more

Life's worth living for

Who knows what could happen

Do what you do

Just keep on laughing

One thing's true

There's always a brand new day

I'm gonna live today like it's my last day

How do you always have an opinion

And how do you always find

The best way to compromise

We don't need to have a reason

We don't need anything we're just wasting time

I think there's something more

Life's worth living for

Who knows what could happen

Do what you do

Just keep on laughing

One thing's true

There's always a brand new day

I'm gonna live today like it's my last day

As Star continued Ennis found herself comforted and encouraged by the song at the same time. It had an up-beat tune and made Ennis feel like even though things at the moment were confusing, somehow it would all work out alright and, in time, Ennis would have answers to all of her questions

Find yourself

'Cause I can't find you

Be yourself

Who are you?

Who knows what could happen

Do what you do

Just keep on laughing

One thing's true

There's always a brand new day

I'm gonna live today like it's my last day

So you go and make it happen

Do your best

Just keep on laughing

I'm telling you

There's always a brand new day

Who knows what could happen

Do what you do

Just keep on laughing

One thing's true

There's always a brand new day

I'm gonna live today like it's my last day

Star finished her song and then, to her surprise, she heard the sound of clapping. Star looked up to see Firo and Maiza standing a few yards away. Maiza was quietly applauding her performance.

"Hey, Ennis," Firo said, approaching the bench. "Czes said you'd be here. I'm going to lunch, would you like to come?"

"Yes I would," Ennis responded energetically. She was about to get up but then she stopped and looked at Star. "Would you like to come?"

Firo cringed inwardly. He had been hoping that this might be lunch just with him and Ennis. Sure Maiza had tagged along, but there were other people for him to talk to at the Alveare.

"I would like to," Star said slightly embarrassed, "but I don't really have a lot of money right now."

Firo cheered inwardly. It's not that he felt vindictive towards Star, in fact in some other situation he probably would have felt sorry for her plight, but at the moment Firo was just happy that his plan for lunch with Ennis hadn't been ruined… until Maiza spoke that is.

"I'll pay for it. The more the merrier, right?" Maiza said, coming forward to stand next to Firo. Maiza did not mind being charitably once in a while, especially towards a friend of Ennis.

"Really?" Star said, looking up at Maiza. She paused for a moment, looking Maiza up and down as though trying to come to a decision.

"Really, it's no trouble at all," Maiza insisted. Although his tone was cordial he still was watching Star's face with attentive scrutiny. She knew something about all of this, though how much she knew Maiza could not be sure.

"Thank you," Ennis said.

"Yes," Star replied, standing up and holding out her hand. "Thank you…?" Her voice trailed off with a questioning tone.

"Maiza," Maiza responded, shaking Star's hand. "Maiza Avaro."

"Nice to meet you," Star said. "I'm Star Auros."

Maiza had to use his real name with Ennis and Firo being so close. But Maiza knew there were other ways to figure out if Star was an immortal or not. If she was an immortal then, well, there wasn't much harm in revealing themselves to her. After all, she had been around for a few weeks, from what Maiza had heard, which was plenty of time to devour someone. Of course if she wasn't an immortal, then that was a whole different problem.


	10. Chapter 8

"Honey, huh," Star said as she bit into her sandwich.

"Yep," Maiza said. "All of the recipes have honey in them."

"Yeah, so?" Firo asked. "What's wrong with honey?"

The presence of an unexpected lunch guest had soured Firo's mood.

"Nothing," Star said. "Actually, honey is quite fascinating. It just about the only food on earth that doesn't go bad and it can be used as an antiseptic. And on top of that if you eat enough honey then you can be cured of pollen allergies."

Maiza whistled.

"Well, you're a little professor aren't you?" he said.

Star blushed slightly.

"Not really," she said. "I just do a lot of reading."

"Still, it really is amazing that you can remember all of that," Ennis said.

"Right…" Firo muttered under his breath.

Ennis gave Firo a light kick under the table and shot him a glare. Ennis though of Firo like family and he did have all of Szilard's memories and knowledge, but that did not stop him from acting like a child.

"It's alright," Star said, as if she had understood everything that had just passed between Firo and Ennis. "He was hoping this would be a lunch date for two and I ended up being a third wheel, so to speak."

Star continued to eat her sandwich as the other three stared at her in silence. Maiza had his suspicions but for Star to have such a complete grasp of the situation, and of Ennis's and Firo's relationship was astounding. Of course Maiza and Firo could not know that Firo had been the subject of Star and Ennis's conversation just a few moments before their arrival in the park.

"And quite an observer too," Maiza said. "You have some amazing skills."

Maiza maintained his friendly and harmless demeanor as he said this, though in his mind he was preparing for what he was about to do. In a single easy moment he placed his right hand on Star's head, gently ruffling her hair like a father might do with a daughter, or an older brother to a younger sister.

"Geeze…" Star said, sitting still and letting Maiza ruffle her hair. "You act like a grandfather or something."

Maiza slowly removed his hand.

"I've been told that," he responded.

Star had not jerked away. Instead she had just looked at him with slight annoyance. Most immortals would have immediately jerked away, well with the exception of Elmer but he was a category unto himself. Of course Maiza had not tried to 'devour' her; he wasn't prepared to do that. But judging from her behavior Maiza did not think she was an immortal. But that left the question then if she was not a fellow immortal than what was she? Possibly and alchemist, but that would require more inquiry.

"I don't think I ever asked you what you're doing in Manhattan," Ennis said, trying to change the subject. She had a feeling Maiza had just tried something, he had purposely used his right hand to pat Star on the head, despite the fact that she was sitting to Maiza's left.

"Oh, that…" Star said, trailing off slightly, her brows knit together in concentration as used a potato chip to push pickle chips around her plate.

"Well I'm looking for something," she said after a while. "Two somethings actually."

"Really?" Ennis asked.

"Yeah, I originally came here looking for a book, but then something of mine got stolen…"

"Well that's what happens when you don't pay attention," Firo said. He though Star must be some bumpkin from the sticks to get robbed soon after arriving in the city.

"What got stolen?" Ennis asked.

"A compass," Star explained. "I really need to get it back too."

"Why would you need a compass in the city?" Firo asked, becoming interested despite himself. "It's not like you can get lost in a city."

"You can get lost whether you're in a city or forest," Star replied with a sigh, as if Firo were a child asking if one could really get to China by digging through the earth. "But that's not the point. That compass wouldn't have value to anyone else."

"Why not?" Firo asked.

"Because it's… broken…" Star said, pausing before she said 'broken.'

"You mean it doesn't point north?" Ennis asked.

"Yup," Star replied.

Well a compass that does not point north would certainly not be useful or even worth very much Ennis thought to herself. But Star seemed particularly upset by its loss.

"I will help you look," Ennis said earnestly.

"Thank you," Star replied. "You don't need to, but if you could I would really appreciate it."

"And what about this book you came looking for?" Maiza asked.

"I haven't had any luck with that either," Star admitted with a sigh.

"What kind of book?" Maiza asked. "Perhaps I could look around too."

There was more behind Maiza's offer than just assistance. She talked as though she had travelled quite a distance to find this book. Hopefully by figuring out what kind of book she was looking for, and if possible finding the book itself and taking a peek at it, Maiza might be able to deduce what kind of person Star was. She certainly looked and acted harmlessly enough, but Maiza could not help but feel there was something dangerous lurking underneath. Like a rip tide, calm and inviting on the surface but dangerous and deadly underneath.

Star shifted so she was resting her cheek on her left hand, giving Maiza an intense but calm look. Maiza suddenly felt as though he was playing poker, and Star had seen though his bluff. The look in her eyes said Star was deciding whether or not to go all in or not. Maiza and Star held their staring contest for a moment more, to the confusion Ennis and Firo, before Star made her decision.

"I'm looking for a Grimore," she said.

Maiza and Ennis tensed. Both knew what a Grimore was and what sort of individual might possess or be looking to possess one. Firo, on the other hand, looked slightly confused.

"A grim what?" he asked but Star suddenly stood.

"Thank you very much for lunch," she said politely, a faintly innocent smile on her face. "But I'm afraid I have to go. I have some business to take care of before I start work this evening."

With a last parting smile Star left.

"Well that was weird," Firo commented before turning to Maiza. "So what's a grim, whatever, that she's looking for?"

"A Grimore," Maiza said, looking troubled. "They were like text books for people like me. Alchemists."

"What, so you mean that girl was…" Firo started before Ennis cut in.

"I don't think she's an alchemist," she said slowly. "And I don't think she's immortal either."

Ennis glanced sideways at Maiza as she said the last part.

"I agree with Ennis," Maiza said. "And I doubt she's an alchemist, but…"

Maiza trailed off, deep in thought.

"But what?" Firo prompted, his displeasure at the earlier events of the afternoon forgotten. Firo felt his interest piqued by the small mystery before him. Unlike Maiza he did not feel any foreboding about Star.

"Well, there was another group of people who used Grimores," Maiza continued slowly. Clearly he was unsure about what he was about to say next.

"Who were they?" Firo prompted.

"Magicians," Maiza said simply.

Star stood outside of the Alveare and sighed.

"I suppose I put it off long enough… right… now to find some candles…"


	11. Chapter 9

Two nights had passed and Luck had returned to the bar. This visit wasn't necessarily out of interest in the bar's business. He had been satisfied with the last visit and under ordinary circumstances wouldn't have come against unless an issue arose that required his presence. No, he was staring at the reason for his presence, a reason that sat under a bright light playing the piano.

Earlier that day Claire, or Felix as he was going by now, stopped by the Gandor's 'main office', so to speak, to see how the family was doing and asking about how the opening of the new bar went. In the course of the conversation Luck had mentioned Star, and his, as he put it, 'slight concern' about her. Unfortunately they had been conversing in the main room, and equally unfortunately, Maria had been present. After listening to Maria's story, Claire came to an annoying conclusion about the situation: Luck had a crush on the new pianist.

Of course Luck had insisted this was not the case, but of course Claire did not believe this. He talked to Luck about how great it was that he had finally found someone and was mentioning something about possibly a double wedding between himself and Chane and Luck and the pianist. Truth be told, Claire had not meant to mock Luck, but that was how Luck had felt. Berga had played along for the most part, since out of the three brothers and Claire, Luck was the only one with no significant other.

For a moment Luck had almost lost his temper. After the incident Luck determined that he would figure out why this girl, Star, bothered him so much. Away from her presence it was easy to convince himself that he had over reacted. Being afraid of such a tiny girl was ridiculous. Of course even as Luck thought this there was a small voice in the back of his head asking if that was all. Was she really just a strange girl? Was there anything more? And what was 'more' anyway?

These thoughts chased themselves around Luck's mind as he watched Star from the corner table. He was frustrated that this girl could unsettle him so much. After all the events of the previous years, including becoming immortal, the thought that a stranger who came out of nowhere could seemingly take over his life.

Luck waited patiently for Star to return to the back room. Luck had made sure that no one would be there when he confronted Star. The bar had closed and the bar room had already been cleaned, yet Star remained at the piano, quietly playing her own tunes. Fed up, Luck stood and walked over to the piano.

"The bar closed up a while ago," Luck commented, coming up behind her.

"And yet you're still here," Star said quietly, still picking out tunes on the keys.

"Don't give me that crap," Luck said, reaching out and gripping Star's right upper arm, above a black ribbon had been tied in a bow, turning her around to face him.

Star cried out in pain and Luck instinctively let go. He hadn't gripped her that hard. He looked at his hand and saw faint pink smudged. Suddenly it dawned on Luck why Star had worn the ribbon there. It was to cover a wound. Luck looked from his hand to Star.

"What the hell?" Star asked, still wincing in pain, her left hand wrapped around the wound.

"Who did this?" Luck asked. He had been taken aback by Star's reaction. For some reason he found it hard to imagine her actually being injured.

"Someone had something of mine and I went to get it back," Star replied, leaning down now that the pain had faded to un-buckle the low white heels she wore when performing. "I underestimated them."

Luck though for a moment, as Star removed her shoes. If Keith or Berga found out, there would be hell to pay. Working for the Gandor family was almost the same as being a part of the family. Luck hoped nothing too chaotic would come from this.

"Um, would you mind helping me?" Star asked, looking sideways at Luck, blushing slightly. "My arm wasn't the only thing hurt."

Star stood, the shoes in her right hand, her left clutching the piano. She leaned heavily against the instrument, favoring her right leg. Luck said nothing, his mind still turning over the possible consequences of Star's injuries. Instead he moved closer to her. Star reached out and wrapped her right arm around Luck's waist. Luck placed his left arm around Star's shoulders. Slowly the two of them walked towards the back room, Star leaning heavily against Luck. He stopped when they had reached the curtained corner of the back room.

"I'll be fine from here," Star said calmly, shifting herself against the wall, still keeping weight off of her right leg. "But… would you mind getting me some warm water? The cut re-opened and I want to clean it before I bandage it again."

Yet again, Luck said nothing but quietly left for the kitchen.

I'm talking about as much as Keith… he thought as he entered the kitchen, searching for a bowl.

Luck filled the bowl with water at the sink. After he had turned off the tap Luck contemplated his reflection in the quivering water.

I really am too nice for this Luck thought to himself. He really wasn't cut out to be a Mafioso.

With a sigh Luck turned and began to walk back to Star. After this he needed to get down to business with Star. He needed to know if she really was a threat or not, and for that Luck could not let himself be swayed by emotions such as pity.

Still lost in these thoughts Luck returned to the back room and, without thinking, pulled aside a corner of the curtain closing off Star's dressing room.

Star's head snapped up when the curtain moved. She had been expecting Luck to announce his presence on the other side of the curtain and then hand her the basing though the curtain. This was the nineteen thirties after all, and a man did not simply walk into a woman's changing room.

Luck glanced around the room before fully realizing what he had done. There was a table with a mirror and lamp on the adjacent wall and on the opposite wall was a row of hooks for clothing and bags. Luck saw all this at a glance before his eyes fixed on Star, heat rushing into his face. Star was seated at the table, dressed from the waist down in her usual attired. But across her torso Star wore only the skimpiest undergarment Luck had ever seen, even on a show girl, with just two triangles of cloth covering her breasts and a strap around the back. Luck's face colored for a split second before he noticed something that drew his attention more than the scantily clad woman before him. It was the scars. Two that looked like wounds from some kind of sword, one wrapping around her left side and another running down her front, almost perfectly centered above her rib cage, and one large stab wound on her right side just beneath the rib cage.

The scars caused Luck to pause. But while Luck had swayed to a stop, Star had pushed herself into motion. Her face turning a brilliant pink she marched up to Luck, took the basin from his stunned hands, and slapped him sharply across the cheek.

"Get out!" she fairly shriek.

With this sudden reality check Luck hurriedly backed out of the room. Once outside he slowly rubbed this cheek where Star had slapped him and then took a seat at the nearest poker table. For a second he thought about what he had just done, and how Keith would most likely kill him for it, before the images of Star's scars crowded into his mind. What had she been doing that would give her injuries like that? Immediately Claire's profession sprang to mind, but Star hardly seemed like an assassin. But then again, neither did Marie. But if Star really was an assassin, how could she be injured so easily?

Luck leaned against the table, resting his head in his hand, staring at the curtained room where Star was bandaging her arm and finishing changing. The discovery of the scars had only increased, not diminished, Luck's confusion. Despite reminding himself that assassins were a mixed bunch he could hardly believe that Star was a hired killer. But if she wasn't then what could she be doing that would get her cut up like that? The only other explanation that jumped out at Luck was that Star was part of some other family. After all, being in the mafia didn't exactly guarantee a long life.

Finally Star emerged from the changing room, fully clothed and still slightly flushed. Star leaned against the wall and looked at Luck, their eyes meeting. Without saying a word Star pushed herself off of the wall and in four limping steps made it to the poker table. Leaning hard on the table Star pulled out a chair and then collapsed into it. She stretched out her injured limb with a sigh and looked up at Luck.

"You have a lot of questions you want to ask me, don't you?" She said.

Luck felt himself jump slightly inside. Within a moment she had struck upon the topic he was about to bring up, though this saved him the trouble of starting the conversation himself of course.

Luck collected his thoughts as he straightened himself up in his chair. Now that the moment had come Luck found it easy to slip into the calm and cool demeanor that he wore in front of the rest of the family.

"I do have some questions," he said calmly, "and I expect truthful answers."

The corner of Star's mouth twitched into a smile.

"This is not funny," Luck commented calmly. "There will be… consequences… for lies."

"That isn't it," Star said shaking her head, the faint smile on her face. Then, suddenly, the smile vanished and Star leaned forward, her arm on the table. "I'll answer your questions, but first you must answer one of mine."

"Very well," Luck replied. If he could get the information that he wanted with just one answer then that was a cheap price to pay. But the serious look on Star's face said otherwise.

"What do you want me to tell you," Star said, her face deadly serious as she looked into Luck's eyes, "the truth, which you won't believe, or a lie, which you will believe?"

Taken aback by the strangeness of the question Luck was speechless for the moment. But while he was stunned inside, outside he maintained his cool demeanor.

"You mean to say," Luck began, when he had gathered his thoughts, "that the truth is too fantastical to be believed?"

"Yeah," Star said with a nod. She stared at the table for a moment, deep in thought, before turning back to Luck. "And I just want to make sure you're ready to accept my answers, because right now you're unsure of yourself."

Luck felt his heart skip a beat. There it was again, that freaky ability of hers to know what he was thinking, or more accurately, feeling.

"How did you…?" Luck began, but Star cut him off.

"If you can accept the truth, I'll tell you. But what I do know right now is that the way you define yourself, and more importantly the way you define your relationship to the world, has radically changed, and you're struggling to figure out where you fit in after these changes. The last thing I want to do is make that even harder, because the things I know can shatter the way you see the world."

Luck sat back. He wasn't sure what to make of this. First Star had thrown him off balance with her weird psychic trick, and now she told him that she could shatter his world? Such a thing was hard for Luck to believe. What could this girl possibly know that could drastically change his world? It was also possible that this was just some kind of riddle Star had cooked up to keep from having to answer Luck's questions.

"You say you can shatter my world, but frankly I don't see how you could do that," Luck commented, hoping to draw Star into dropping more hints about what kind of game she was playing.

"Alright then," Star replied. "Food for thought: I bet in the beginning you didn't think immortality was real…"

Luck nearly jumped out of his chair. Of course he had had his suspicious that Star had known, but for her to come straight out and confirm his suspicious was something Luck had not been expecting.

"Calm down, geeze," Star said. She clearly thought he was over reacting. "I've know there was something different about you from the first moment we met, thought I didn't know what it was until about a week or so ago."

Luck's calm façade had cracked.

Star sighed as Luck settled back into his chair

"As I was saying, you probably didn't think immortality was real, right?" Star said.

Luck nodded slightly. If someone had come up to him a couple of years ago and offered Luck the secrets of immortality, he probably would have called the person crazy and laughed it off. But now…

"So, if immortality is real," Star continued, "what else could be real?"

Luck opened his mouth to tell Star she sounded insane, but then closed it, the weight of her words sinking in. What else was true? If immortality turned out to be real, then could other things be real as well? Luck's mind flitted back to childhood and the ghost stories and urban legends that had filled them. Of course Luck had long ago discarded such tales as non-sense, but what if…?

"I see you're beginning to get my point," Star commented, looking satisfied.

"Wait," Luck said. "So you're telling me that other… things… might be real… what does that have to do with you?"

Luck couldn't help but begin to believe what Star had said so far was genuine, but she had also neatly managed to steer him off of his intended course.

"I suppose we would have come back around to this point eventually," Star said. "The answers to your questions are most likely to be fantastical and will completely up-end the world order as you know it. But the point I wanted to make is that there are a lot of other things out there, and when you become aware of them, they become aware of you. So I guess, ultimately what I want to know is do you really want the answer? Because once you open that door to all of the shadowy corners of this world you can't close it again. Is that something you're prepared to deal with?"

Luck felt the corners of his mouth twitch in a smile. This sounded a little familiar. He needed to be sure of his decision because there could be unpleasant consequences, and once the decision was made, he couldn't go back. Luck gave the same sort of line to anyone wanting to join the family. For a moment Luck felt a flicker of an emotion that could almost be considered excitement. It had been so long since he had felt his emotions stirred. Not since the incident with the Runorata family did Luck feel as though he were living. Immortality had, in a sense, deadened him inside; but now this girl came along and seemed to breathe feeling back into his life.

"You can't scare me that easily," Luck answered. "After all you said it yourself, I'm immortal."

"Immortal, not invulnerable," Star commented. "There is a difference."

Luck flinched slightly as Star's retort. Though not so much from the content of the words but the tone, she spoke as if Luck was a child in school and she was the teacher.

"I think I will be able to deal with any problems this might cause," Luck replied.

At the time he could not have known what he was getting himself into, by claiming this.

"You don't seem the type to go looking for trouble," Star said, sizing up Luck, "and everyone else is probably already aware of you anyway. Not that it matters. No offense meant, but on the 'supernatural' scale your right down there with circus psychics."

Luck flinched again, this time in anger. He did not appreciate being compared to some side show.

"Don't get so pissed," Star said to Luck. She had immediately noticed his change in mood, even though nothing but the faintest trace of annoyance showed on his face. "That's a good thing. It means that so long as you leave them alone, they'll most likely leave you alone."

Her ability to read his mood still made Luck feel uneasy. And, as if to add to his unease, Star glanced over her shoulder at the closed door, as if she could see something that Luck could not.

"Well anyway," she began, turning back to face Luck, "At this point I kind of know more about you than you know about me, so I'll put us on an even footing for tomorrow."

Luck waited patiently for Star to continue. After everything that she had told him that day, Luck had the feeling that trying to force Star to remain and answer his questions, or really try to force her to do anything against her will, would be pointless and possibly counterproductive. So he would take what he could get for the moment. If nothing else Luck knew he could find her here.

"What I am is a magician."


	12. Chapter 10

"A magician?" Luck asked, skeptically. With all of the buildup he had been expecting something more spectacular, or at least something that sounded more dangerous.

"A mage to be more precise," Star responded.

This made Luck pause for a minute. Picking up on his confusion Star elaborated.

"Magician simply denotes one who is capable of using magic. Not circus performers who pull rabbits out of hats. Classification is a mage, a combat mage to be more precise, but a mage no the less."

As Luck was processing this new information there came the sound of a quiet knock at the door before it was slowly opened. Luck looked up, slightly surprised by this, to him, unexpected visitor. Star, however, did not seem concerned at all.

"Hello, Donny," she said politely nodding at the hulking man who walked through the door.

"Hey Star," Donny said. "Jacuzzi got worried. About your leg. And walking home. So I, uh, came to get you."

Star nodded in acknowledgement of this explanation. Although she had only met Donny a handful of times she was already used to his halting manner of speech.

"I'll have to thank Jacuzzi," Star said, standing up before she turned to face Luck. "I guess I'll be seeing you later. Just think about what I said, and let me know what your answer is."

"Very well," Luck said. It was late and there wasn't much point in detaining her there, now that Donny had showed up.

"Alright then-" Star began, turning to face Donny only to find herself scooped up in the giants arms.

"Wah! Donny, you don't need to carry me!" Star cried out in surprise.

"No problem," Donny answered. He then turned towards Luck for a moment. "Good night."

And with that awkward farewell they left, Star still insisting that Donny did not need to carry her the entire way back to the Genoard mansion.

When Donny arrived back at the mansion with Star he entered through the side door to the kitchen.

"I'm back," Donny said as he walked through the door, still cradling Star in his arms like a small child.

"Wow, Donny," Jacuzzi said, seeing the two of them. "Did you really carry her the whole way back?"

"I told him he didn't need to," Star responded, slightly embarrassed.

"No problem," Donny repeated. "You're light."

Once inside the kitchen Donny put Star down and she took a hobbling step towards a chair that Nice had pulled out for her.

"I knew you'd be coming back soon, so I got this ready for you," Nice said, handing Star a hot water bottle.

"Thanks," Star said with a grateful smile as she placed the hot water bottle on her right thigh. "And listen, in the morning tomorrow, let me help out a bit. I mean you patched me up and everything after last night so it's the least I can do."

"But what can you do with your leg like that?" Nice asked, cutting off Jacuzzi before he could start on a nervous rant about Star aggravating her injury.

"What about helping out Fang in the kitchen? I mean I can help mix stuff together and chop up vegetable or whatever else I can do sitting down," Star responded.

"That's a great idea," Jacuzzi said. Happy that Star was satisfied with helping, but that she wouldn't be up and around on her injured leg.

After that they all sat around the kitchen table chatting for a while. Jacuzzi and Nice were left with the impression that Star must have come from some place out in the sticks because every once and a while she would comment on something that amazed her that she had never seen before, like the ice box, or the Ford Model T, even though by now the car was woefully out dated. Eventually they decided to call it a night and Nice helped Star up the stairs to the room she was going to share with Chane.

"Thanks for putting up with me for the night," Star said to Chane as Chane turned off the light.

Chane nodded slightly, a very faint smile at the corner of her lips, indicating that Star's presence was no great bother.

The two lay down to sleep and two quiet hours passed before Chane felt herself awake to a sound within the room. She had trained vigorously in order to protect Huey so that even the slightest suspicious sound would awaken Chane from a deep sleep.

Moving as little as possible, keeping her eyes open only a slit so she could still feign sleep, Chane turned her head to look across the room towards Star, to see if she had awakened as well. To Chane's mild surprise Star was sitting upright on the spare mattress that had been laid out on the floor. Star was examining her injured leg, sighing.

"I don't think I can put this off… especially not if things are going to get complicated," Star muttered softly. With a resigned sigh she placed her right hand over her left shoulder. What she uttered next confused Chane.

"Ten, release."

Chane couldn't understand the meaning of those words, but what happened afterward alarmed Chane so much that she nearly sprang from the bed, drawing the knife that she kept hidden under her pillow.

Star placed both of her hands on her injured leg and whispered a word that Chane did not understand. Right after that there came a soft green light from Star's hands that enveloped her leg for a moment before is gently faded.

"Goddess… what is my life coming to?" Star whispered in exasperation as she lay back down and curled up in her blanket, her back to Chane.

Chane, despite her best attempts, had opened her eyes wide in shock when she had observed Star. Chane has seen a lot in her time with Huey, the alchemist, but never had she encountered anything as strange as the event that had just taken place in her room. Chane could feel her heart hammering against her ribcage as she slowly rolled over onto her side, sliding one hand under the pillow and curling her fingers around the knife's handle. Just having the weapon in her hand did wonders to calm Chane. But despite that, she still found it difficult to sleep that night. Instead, Chane lay awake, watching Star breathe quietly in her slumber, gripping the knife beneath the pillow with questions chasing themselves around and around in her head until finally, exhausted Chane fell asleep just before dawn.

"Good morning," Star said with a smile as Jacuzzi, Nice and some of the others in Jacuzzi's gang entered the kitchen.

"Good morning," Nice responded.

"Guess what?" Star asked, a giant grin still on her face.

"What?" Jacuzzi asked.

"My leg is better! I guess all I needed was a hot water bottle and a good night's sleep."

"What? Really?" Jacuzzi exclaimed, surprised.

"Yeah," Star replied, standing up and walking a few paces without limping. "Look, I can even do this."

Star balanced on her right leg and hopped up and down a few times.

"H-hey, don't do that!" Jacuzzi cried out. "What if you hurt yourself?"

"Jacuzzi is right," Nice said. "Your leg might be better, but don't push it, ok? You don't want to make it worse."

"I'll be sure to take it easy," Star replied easily.

"Alright, time for breakfast," Fang announced from his place by the stove.

There was a rush as a mass of hungry people rushed through the kitchen to get their plate. Star quietly slid over to the wall next to the kitchen door, letting everyone else go first.

As Star waited, Chane entered the room, yawning and looking very tired.

"Good morning," Star said, smiling, as Chane passed her.

Chane flinched slightly and turned to look back at Star, her face emotionless. When she had awoken to find Star's bed empty, Chane had thought that Star had already left.

"Wow Chane, you look tired," Nick said as he passed her with a plate of food.

Chane turned to look at Nick and in that moment Star slipped past her to join the others. She was smiling and laughing, carrying on with the others like she always had, but Chane could not shake the uneasiness that had settled in the pit of her stomach. As Chane received her food and sat down to eat she resolved to find Claire that day. Claire was the only one she could 'talk' to, and Chane felt like she desperately needed to talk to someone about what she had seen.

After breakfast Star helped around the house with a few simple tasks as a way to say thank-you for the other night before she quietly slipped off. Star enjoyed the time that she spent with Jacuzzi and his gang, which is why she tried to avoid spending too much time at the house. If things became complicated Star did not want people who were so nice and… normal… to become involved.

On her way back to the park Star bought a soft pretzel from a street vendor. As she ate the pretzel Star became lost in thought, pondering her encountered with the immortals of Manhattan and whether or not they might be involved in her problem or not.

Suddenly Star felt a hand grab her shoulder roughly. Shocked from her thoughts Star pivoted swiftly, dropping her pretzel as she battered aside the hand that had grabbed her with her right arm while balling her left hand into a fist, preparing to strike.

"Woah, hold on!" cried a familiar voice, which caused Star to pause.

In that moment there came a loud whoosh as a car raced past inches from Star's back. The breeze caused by the car's swift movement played through Star's hair as she slowly turned to look behind her. She had been about to walk right into the street. Just as slowly as before Star turned back to face Maiza who had grabbed her just in time to keep from being run over by the car.

"Thank you," Star said the tension dissipating from her body.

"No problem," Maiza responded, "but you really should pay attention to where you're walking. Someone might not be there to pull you back next time."

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind," Star answered, turning back to stare at the road. The pretzel she dropped had been crushed into a pasty colored streak that was already beginning to attract pigeons.

"Actually, I was looking for you," Maiza said.

This got Star's attention and she looked back sharply at Maiza, the dreamy look gone from her eyes.

"No need to look so serious," Maiza responded easily. "I just want to talk to you a bit."

"Alright," Star said, wearily. "Do you mind if we find someplace to sit?"

"Sure," Maiza replied, and strode off purposefully.

A few moments later the two were seated on a bench on a picturesque street lined with small stores. Maiza was leaning easily against the back of the bench but Star was hunched forward staring intently at nothing, her face dark.

Maiza had decided to try an easy approach. He believed that if he appeared non-threatening Star might be more likely to cooperate with him and answer a few questions. Maiza felt pretty sure that Star herself was not much of a threat to the Martillo family, but she had asked about a grimore, and Maiza needed to be sure that, whatever her intentions were, they would not cause any problems for the Martillo family.

"So, how long have you been in Manhattan?" Maiza asked affably.

"A few weeks," Star responded leaning back and turning her head to look at Maiza.

"And what brings you to this corner of the city?" Maiza continued, as though it was just a normal conversation instead of a semi-interrogation.

"The grimore," Star said. "That's what all of this is about, isn't it?"

Maiza raised and eye brow. It appeared that playing a fool wasn't necessary. Maiza dropped the false grin he wore but kept his demeanor as friendly as he could.

"Well, yes," Maiza admitted. "I haven't heard that word in quite a few years."

"Years, or centuries?" Star prompted, turning her head back to stare across the street.

This time Star succeeded in mildly surprising Maiza.

"I know you're older than you look. So you're about, what, two hundred years or so?" Star continued.

"Two hundred fifty is more accurate," Maiza said.

"I can usually guess within a couple of decades or so," Star responded.

"So this means you-" Maiza began.

"Know what you are? Yeah," Star finished.

"For how long?" Maiza questioned. Star did not seem hostile, rather she appeared exhausted. But Maiza needed to know how much she knew. If normal humans found out about immortality, it could cause trouble.

"Not too long," Star replied. "I had a feeling when I first saw you. I knew you were much older than you look. I really knew after I met Czes though. And then I ran into these two other guys, one really tall and skinny, and the other short and kind of round. I literally ran into them. I accidentally knocked the taller guy into a pile of debris from a building renovation. His hand got cut when he threw it out to stop is fall. That's when I knew for sure what all of you were. You all had the same tell-tale signature in you aura."

"Aura?" Maiza said. He had heard the word before but auras were more the territory of mystics and not alchemists.

"Yeah, the energy field given off by the soul. I can 'see' it."

Maiza absorbed all of this information and slowly turned it over in his mind before he asked his next question.

"Is that why you want the grimore?" Maiza asked.

"No," Star replied bluntly. "You asked me why I'm here, right? Well I'm here because that book hit me in the head, and the next thing I knew I was in this city and I can't leave. I've tried."

That answer, of course, explained everything and nothing. Maiza was about to ask for an explanation but suddenly a low growling noise emitted from Star's general area.

Star quietly stood up.

"I know you have a lot of questions, but right now I'm really hungry. If you want some answers, come to the park this evening. I have a feeling your questions are going to be the same as his, and I'd rather have to only explain things once."

"Very well," Maiza said. He had a feeling pushing the point would not get him anywhere.

Star turned to leave but Maiza, on a whim, spoke up and stopped her.

"You look very tired," Maiza said.

Star turned back to him and smiled wearily.

"Not really, just hungry. Very hungry," and with that Star left.

Maiza stood still a little while longer. Despite his suspicious Maiza was beginning to feel some sympathy for Star. He had lived a very long time and could recognize when life was beginning to wear someone down. Star had looked as though there was a great weight on her. Maiza thought back to Star's words from early. She had said that now she could not leave. Perhaps there was more to the events that were going on that just one lost girl. With that final thought Maiza turned and left, not knowing how right his suspicions were.


	13. Chapter 11

The sun was beginning to set as Maiza made his way towards the park to meet with Star. In his hand he held a bag of peanuts he had just bought from a street vendor. Maiza had remembered Star's parting words, about being hungry. He had also heard from Ennis that Star was, most likely, homeless. For some reason the parting image of Star was etched into Maiza's mind. She had looked like someone who had spent too much time being battered by fate. Giving her something to eat was the least he could do, Maiza thought to himself. Of course Maiza had seen a lot of human suffering in the centuries that he had lived, but for some reason the sight of Star seemed to stir his sympathy more than anyone else.

Maiza found Star asleep on a bench in the park, her head slumped on her shoulder and her chest rising and falling rhythmically. Remembering how Star had reacted earlier that day when Maiza had suddenly grabbed her to stop her from walking in front of a car, he decided that it would be better to try and wake her with words.

"Hello Star," Maiza said loudly.

Star stirred and her eyes fluttered open. She yawned, sat up and stretched, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She looked back at Maiza blearily for a moment, as if trying to remember who he was and why he was there.

"Oh yeah…" She said, as if she had just remembered. Star yawned again.

"It isn't a good idea to sleep in the open like this," Maiza commented, sitting next to her and handing her the peanuts. "You don't know what sort of strange people are around."

"You are awesome!" Star cried out upon receiving the peanuts. "And anyway, if anyone really tried to hurt me, they'd be missing a few limbs, whether I'm awake or not."

Star's last comment had made Maiza happy he had not tried to shake her awake. At this point Maiza decided not to rule out any possibilities. After all, this girl was a complete unknown and it was better to overestimate her than to underestimate her.

"So, who's this other person who's coming?" Maiza said, deciding to start a conversation rather than sit in silence.

"He ought to be along soon… his name is Luck Gandor," Star replied between mouthfuls of peanuts.

"Luck Gandor?" Maiza asked in surprise.

"Yeah, you know him?" Star asked.

"Well, yes," Maiza said. "Our families are on good terms so yes, I do know Luck, and his brothers as well."

"Brothers?" Star asked. "I don't think he ever mentioned that.

"Yes, he has two older brothers," Maiza replied. There was no danger in revealing this kind of information after all, since Star could ask just about anyone on Gandor turf if Luck had brothers and get a straight answer.

"Hmm," Star answered, thoughtfully munching on her peanuts.

About a minute passed in silence before a figure approached the two. Luck had arrived.

"Hello," Star said, turning her head to greet Luck.

"Maiza," Luck said in mild surprise as he spied Star's companion. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"You either," Maiza answered, giving a nod in greeting. "This is rather interesting."

"Maybe from your perspective," Star answered, stuffing the empty peanut bag into her pocket before sliding down on the bench so Luck could sit down as well.

"Well, go ahead and ask your questions. The park is mostly deserted at this time of day so no one is going to overhear us," Star said.

Luck and Maiza glanced at each other over Star's head. Luck nodded slightly, allowing Maiza to go first out of respect of his age and position in the Martillo family.

"Why are you here?" Maiza asked.

"I have no idea," Star replied.

This answer shocked both Luck and Maiza.

"What do you mean?" Luck prompted.

"This is going to take some explaining," Star said with a sigh. "Basically, there are a lot of other worlds beside this one. Magicians can travel between the worlds, mostly to fix things that are wrong. If a world gets too far out of balance it can cause catastrophes not just for that world but for all the others around it. I had just finished up my job in one world and was going home when I got hit in the head by that grimore and ended up here, and no matter how hard I try, I can't find a way to get back home."

Maiza and Luck were silent while they mulled over this information. Luck shoved Star's words about 'other worlds' into the back of his mind. That was too much for him to deal with right now. What he didn't understand was how getting hit with a book made her end up here.

"Why would a grimore cause you to end up here?" Maiza asked, as though reading Luck's mind.

"Well," Star began, "think of worlds like fruit in a Jell-O mold. If I want to get to a different world, I need to travel though the space in-between. I was traveling from the world I was in to my home world when I got hit by the grimore. Objects can be summoned by Magicians from one world to another. I got caught up in the path of the grimore and ended up here. Normally that wouldn't be a problem; it isn't the first time it's happened. But the strange part is that I can't leave now. No matter what I try I cannot leave this world. So my only clue right now is to find the grimore and see what I can figure out from there."

Yet again, Luck and Maiza fell into silence. This was a lot of information, and strange information at that, to absorb all at one.

"So you're a Magician…" Maiza began slowly.

"Technically Mage," Star interrupted.

"Right," Maiza began again. "So why here in Manhattan? I know that you ended up in this… world… by accident, but why Manhattan, particularly this area?"

"Because at first I thought this was another job," Star answered. "And to be honest, even in the magical community immortality is a very, very rare thing. So finding so many immortals in just one area made me suspicious so I decided to hang around and see what was going on."

Maiza felt his suspicions confirmed. He had a feeling that Star had been hanging around the area for a reason and that that reason most likely had to do with the immortals.

"But really, you guys are about as normal as it gets, for immortals that is," Star continued. "I mean, the only weird thing is that all of you are together in one place. There isn't any noticeable activity from any other sort of creature."

"Creature?" Luck asked.

"Yeah," Star answered. "You have a couple of demons, a few weres, a fae or two and I think a vampire but I can't be too sure about that. And something else too, though I'm not sure what it is."

Luck blinked in surprise.

"If you can find out all of this, they why can't you find the grimore?" Luck asked. "You have magic, don't you?"

"A) I can find out about other creatures because they have an aura," Star began. "B) I suck a dowsing, and C) I lost my compass."

"You've mentioned that before," Maiza said, before Luck could ask another question.

"Yeah, it got stolen in the first few minutes I was here," Star replied, looking a little embarrassed.

"So if you find your compass you can find the book and then you'll go home?" Luck asked.

"That's the jist of it," Star replied. "Actually, I tried to get it back earlier, but I underestimated the people who had it."

Luck thought back to the evening before, remembering Star's injuries. So she had tried to get her compass back and had gotten injured in the process.

"I take it you didn't succeed?" Maiza asked.

Star laughed bitterly.

"No," she said. "I didn't expect there to be dabblers."

Star glanced at Luck and, seeing as he was about to ask her a question, she clarified: "A dabbler is someone who dabbles in the magical arts but isn't a magician. They're more of a pain in the ass than anything."

They fell silent for a few moments, Luck and Maiza trying to comprehend the information that Star had just provided to them.

"So how did you find your compass?" Luck asked, breaking the silence.

"I'm no good at dowsing in the sense that I can only find objects that belong to me. I guess you can say my scent rubs off on them I can trace them that way. It doesn't work for objects I'm not familiar with."

"So you get your compass back, you find the grimore and then you'll leave?" Maiza asked, wanting to make sure he understood the situation. All of the talk about magic was making his mind spin a little, and he just wanted to be sure he knew what Star's purpose was.

"Yup, that's it," Star responded.

Yet again they lapsed into silence.

Luck began to wonder what it would be like if Star returned to her home. It had been what, maybe a month since she had first show up? That wasn't a long time to get to know someone, but still, Luck felt as if his life would be somewhat empty if Star left it. Perhaps it was just the mystery she had posed. Star had given Luck, who felt as though he had lost his drive and purpose when he had gained immortality, a reason to take an interest in life again. Yes, things would seem dull and quiet if she left. But then again, isn't that what Luck had always wanted? Peace and quiet? For the first time Luck began to wonder is life wouldn't be more interesting with someone like Star in it.

Maiza, who had much less contact with Star than Luck, had his thoughts training in a different direction. At this point Star really did not seem like a threat. She had her own business to take care of and then she would go home. But where was her home? Star had mentioned her ability to travel to different worlds, which meant that she herself must have come from somewhere that was not earth.

"So if you're not from here, then what world did you come from?" Maiza asked. This was to satisfy his personal curiosity now.

Star suddenly leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and weaving her fingers together.

"That… well…" She began cautiously, pressing her lips against her fingers. "This is the part that I'm having trouble believing myself."

Luck and Maiza both raised their eyebrows at this. If this was something that Star, the magical girl, was having trouble believing then it must be something incredible.

"I think… and I'm not one hundred percent sure but… I mean… there's no other logical explanation I can come up with. And this one just… It's so rare that I'm having trouble believing that it's actually happened to me…" Star's thoughts were wandering between explanation and her own thought process.

"Just say it already," Luck said. "It can't be any crazier than the things you've said so far."

Star shot Luck a look as if to as 'Really? You have no idea what you're talking about.' Then she took a deep breath.

"I think… I'm from the future…"

This had stunned both Luck and Maiza into silence. The magic was one thing, in fact, it made some of the really weird events surrounding Star make sense. And weren't they immortal? It wasn't much of a stretch to believe that magic could be real as well. But this new revelation sounded more like something from a movie or a dime novel.

"You're from the-" Maiza began but someone rudely interrupted.

"Hey!" the voice echoed across the park causing Star, Maiza and Luck to look about for the source of the disturbance.

At the other end of the park stood a group of three roughly dressed men, looking as though they had just come from the factory or maybe the docks. They stood close together as they made their way across the park, each man holding his right arm awkwardly behind himself. Obviously they were hiding something.

Luck and Maiza, the Mafioso and camorrista immediately realized that they were hiding some kind of weapon, most likely guns, behind their backs. Luck reached for his own gun and Maiza for his knife.

"You're that little bitch," the lead man said, his attention focused on Star.

Star's eyes narrowed and, oddly, changed color from warm sky blue to cold ice. She said nothing in response to this insult but instead tensed her entire body, like a tiger poised to strike.

"I'm here to make sure you don't cause any more problems," the man said. At the same moment he and his companions leveled the tommy guns that they had been hiding behind their backs and the three on the bench.

Instantly Luck and Maiza's eyes' flickered to Star. They would survive a machine gun onslaught, but Star would surely die. Without saying a word both of them made to launch themselves at the enemy.

In that same instant the men who had so suddenly appeared pulled the triggers of their guns.

Bullets tore through the park through up dust and dirt. Luck and Maiza instinctively dodged to the side, but almost at the same moments they realized their terrible mistake. If one of them had remained in place, he could have been a human shield for Star, the only mortal among them. Apparently Star was the only target since none of the men turned to rake Maiza or Luck once they had jumped out of the way.

Luck felt his stomach turn to ice and he turned back to the bench, sure he would find Star's minced corpse upon the seat. But instead he saw something that made his jaw drop. A strange sound filled the air, like metal scrapping glass. Star was in the same position she had been when the men had opened fire, only her entire body was encased in a substance that much resembled quartz. The bullets ricocheted off of Star, leaving her completely unharmed.

The men, who at first had been pulling the triggers of their guns with a sick sense of power, now kept their fingers clamped tightly out of fear. A Thompson submachine gun, the most feared weapon in any American city, was completely useless against the girl before them.

All too soon the clips ran out. Even with the clips completely empty and the gun now next to useless, the men continued to point them in Star's direction, desperately gripping the trigger, as if their fear could conjure more bullets into the clips.

After all of the bullets had been spent, the crystal case that surrounded Star began to melt. Well melt was the only way to describe it, yet nothing dripped to the ground. It was as if the substance simply melted back into her body. Star's breath misted in the air before as the last of the crystal vanished from her face, as if the temperature of the air around her had dropped at least twenty degrees… or as if Star's body had simply become much warmer than the air around it.

When her shield had at last faded completely Star stood. This caused the men with the guns to jump but before they drop their now useless tommy guns and reach for back up weapons Star raised her hand, her index and middle fingers pressed tightly together, pointing at the group of would be assassins. Her lips moved. Star had spoken a command, yet no one knew what it was. Everyone present was left with the impression that words had passed from her lips, yet if asked not one of them would be able to repeat what was said. What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion to those watching.

There was a clattering noise as the clips of the tommy guns slid from the magazines. This caused the trio to look at their weapons, mouths and eyes wide with fear as their guns slowly disassembled themselves in their hands. The trigger slipped from its slot and the hand grip came loose from the body of the gun. Amid the pings of screws hitting the ground the barrels slowly rolled from the stock to fall to the ground with an audible clang. Small bits of metal rained upon the ground until the men were left holding only the hand grips of the formerly formidable firearms.

Pushed beyond reason by the fear of what they had just witnessed, the men threw the remnants of their weapons to the ground and turned to run. But Star was not finished just yet. With her right arm still extended she held her hand palm out and fingers pressed together in a 'stop' gesture. Quickly she drew her hand from the left to the right, as though wiping a window, and again uttered words that no one could hear. Immediately the escaping trio fell to the ground and did not rise.

The silence after this last act seemed to stretch into an eternity as neither Luck nor Maiza could bring themselves to say anything, let alone move from the position they occupied when they had initially dodged the attack. It was a sigh that finally broke the silence. Luck and Maiza in unison turned to face Star. As she sighed her entire body seemed to sag, as if Star had released all of her tension along with that breath. She looked exhausted and a faint sheen of sweat could be seen upon her brow.

"We'd better move," Star said, shaking the two men from their shock. "The gunshots will be drawing a crowd soon."

"Right…" was all Luck could manage.

Accepting his reply Star walked up to the two and took their hands in hers.

"Find some place deserted but safe. Don't talk to me and don't let go of my hand," Star instructed and, before either Luck or Maiza could utter a remark Star commenced whispering under her breath in a language that neither understood.

Luck and Maiza exchanged glances but decided to follow Star's directions for the moment. Not was not the time or the place to discuss what had just happened. The sounds of the fire fight would draw a crowd and a crowd would draw the police who Luck and Maiza, understandably, did not want to meet, especially not at the scene of an incident such as this.

Without wasting another moment Maiza began to lead the way out of the park. As they neared one of the exits a man came rushing up, obviously summoned by the sudden silence which indicated that, whatever else might have happened, the gun men were obviously gone or neutralized. Without thinking Maiza paused as the man approached, expecting to be questioned about what had happened. But instead the man gave the odd group a passing glance and continued on to the scene of the fight. This puzzled Maiza, but this was still not the time or the place for questions.

As they exited onto the street a group of three or four people came rushing up to them. And yet again all passed the three with, barely sparing them a glance, as if a Mafioso, cammorista, and a young girl walking the street holding hands was about as interesting as a lamp post.

Luck glanced after the people who had just passed them. He displayed mild surprise at not being at least gawked at by those people, but had gathered from their encounter with the lone man in the park that whatever it was that Star was doing, it was making them invisible. At least, that was Luck's best guess.

The three of them traversed the streets in silence until, three or four blocks later, Mazia turned to face Star.

"I think we'll be fine here," He said.

In response Star ceased her chanting and dropped the hands she was holding.

"Well, that was quite impressive," Maiza said. Although the words sounded like a compliment the tone of Maiza's voice implied something different.

"Overkill really," Star replied. "But I needed to make a point."

"To whom?" Luck asked.

"Well those idiots for starters. After this they should be too scared to get involved with me or whoever else they were dealing with," Star began. "That, and its usually easier for people to believe in something once they see it."

Star had been right. While Luck and Maiza had acknowledged everything that had been divulged to them in the park, neither of them had really believed it. Of course after the display that Star had put forward her story seemed to be truth rather than fiction.

"What did you do to them back there?" Maiza asked. He had just seen the men collapse. He had no idea if they were alive or not. If Star could kill with just the wave of her hand then she was definitely a force to be reckoned with, and one he definitely did not want to be on the wrong side of.

"I made them faint," Star answered. "This way, whatever they say after they wake up definitely won't be believed."

Maiza and Luck could see the logic in this argument. Believing someone who said a girl grew crystals and broke guns from three yards was hard enough, but if those guys told their story after waking up from a dead faint then anything illogical they said would be written off as a fantasy, most likely induced by drink or drugs. If the only witnesses to the presence of Star, Maiza and Luck in the park were considered mentally incompetent, and with no other person seeing them there, it would be impossible to incriminate Maiza or Luck as having taken part in the fire fight.

As Luck turned these thoughts over in his head something occurred to him that gave him pause. Star had just demonstrated that she could 'turn invisible'.

She could have been around for a lot longer, and no one would have noticed anything… Luck thought.

"So you can turn invisible whenever you want?" Luck asked cautiously. Just when he thought he was getting a handle on the situation something else happened that knocked him off of his feet again.

"It's not invisibility," Star responded, sagging against a wall and rubbing her eyes. "Invisibility is just way too difficult to use most of the time. What I did was just made us un-noticeable. It doesn't stop people from seeing us; it just keeps them from remembering. I mean, do you remember every leaf you see on a tree? I don't think so. All those people will remember seeing is other people."

Before Luck or Maiza could as another question Star stood up and looked at both of them. She looked exhausted now.

"I know you have a lot more questions after that," Star began. "But I have things to take care of now. So we'll just have to meet up some other time."

Star turned to go but Luck placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

"What do you mean 'things to take care of'?" Luck asked.

Star sighed in annoyance.

"Using magic, especially using short cuts like that, uses up a lot of energy which makes me tired and hungry. So if you don't mind I'm going to find something to eat and then sleep for the next twelve hours," Star replied in a clipped tone.

With that Star shook off Luck's hand and was half way down the street before either of them could do anything about it. Luck looked at Maiza, slowly lowering his hand. He and Luck were not exactly friends or anything, but somehow the two of them had wound up in this strange situation together.

"Things have certainly turned… odd…" Luck said to Maiza.

"That they have," Maiza agreed, watching Star until she disappeared down a different street. "But I don't think there is anything else we can do about it tonight, best to go home and rest."

"I think I'll take your advice," Luck said, tipping his hat slightly to Maiza in way of a farewell and starting for home.

Maiza barely acknowledged Luck as he left. Instead he remained on the street, staring at the place where Star had vanished, thinking intently. Star had definitely displayed some amazing powers that evening. And there was only one other individual that Maiza could think of that could perform similar feats: the demon who had granted him the knowledge of immortality over two centuries ago, Ronnie Sukiart.


	14. Chapter 12

Luck stared at the amber liquid swirling in the glass. He was idly tilting the glass from side to side, consumed in his thoughts. Berga glanced at Keith, who was shuffling a deck of poker cards, but said nothing. Ever since Luck had shown up that morning he had not seemed like himself.

'I'm from the future' Star's words echoed in Luck's head, mixing with images of the one-sided fight last evening. All of the images of Star stored in Luck's memory seemed to flash before his eyes all at once. The girl was a complete mystery to Luck. He could not figure her out. One moment she seemed coy, normal, almost sweet, and then she was tough, strong, and powerful. Luck could not help but feel that if she had wanted too, Star could have killed those men that evening as easily as she had knocked them out.

Lucks mind then drifted from the past to fantasies of the future. Luck imagined what it would be like if Star actually joined the family, instead of just working at the bar. In his mind's eye he could see Star there with everyone else, talking with Tick and Maria, watching card games… smiling. What did she look like when she smiled? Luck didn't think he had ever seen the expression on her face. Not a true smile anyway.

"I'm going out," Luck said, setting the glass on the table and standing up. He grabbed his coat, and without any further explanation, left his brothers in silence.

"What's with him?" Berga asked, a few moments after Luck had departed.

Surprisingly Keith responded.

"A girl."

Luck hesitated once he was outside. He had said he was going for a walk, but he wasn't sure where he was going to. He wanted to find Star, but would she be at the park? Last night she mentioned she was going to be sleeping for a while. Where did she live? Luck didn't remember ever finding out this information.

After a moment of indecision, Luck decided to try the park first.

As he set off he began to turn his thoughts over again. Luck wanted Star to join the family. The power that she could bring… no one would want to mess with the Gandor family if they found out the family had a girl who could literally kill with words. That was right, Luck wanted Star to join the family because having someone as powerful as her would be a great asset. That was the reason he was so eager to find her that morning… that was the only reason…

Luck reached the park and found it deserted, save for a small flock of geese. They were migrating back north for the spring.

Luck sighed. He had truly hoped that Star would be in her usual haunt. As Luck turned to leave he caught sight of a shadow across the road. Someone was standing in the shadows of one of the buildings.

Luck decided to investigate. He had a feeling that after the attack last night there might be more trouble. Nonchalantly he walked in the direction of the alley, looking like a man just out for a morning stroll. As Luck approached the figure he glanced carelessly in that direction.

"Star?" Luck said as he stopped short.

"Oh, good morning," Star responded, glancing at Luck before turning her attention back to the park.

"What are you doing?" Luck asked, glancing at the park, in case there had been some change in the few minutes that he had looked over the space. Nothing… just geese.

"Watching…" Star said in a voice laced with suspicion.

Luck stared at Star. Could she be trying to fool him? No, that couldn't be it, not after she had just volunteered so much information last night. Luck was beginning to find it difficult to raise his guard around Star. The only other though that came to Luck's mind was that someone suspicious had come by earlier, and Star was keeping a watch on the park incase that person returned.

"Are you expecting someone?" Luck asked.

"What? Of course not!" Star responded shooting Luck an incredulous look. "It's them!"

She pointed to the flock of geese.

"Geese?" Luck responded, not entirely sure where Star was taking the conversation.

"Evil little hell spawn…" Star murmured under her breath.

Luck laughed. She was acting so serious over geese.

"This is not a laughing matter!" Star responded, insulted. "Have you ever been attacked by a goose? They're evil with feathers!"

Luck was still smiling even as Star pouted and turned to leave in a huff.

"Wait," Luck said, mastering his emotions.

Star continued walking and Luck took two or three hurried steps to catch up with her.

"You have magic, and you're afraid of geese?" Luck asked, still smiling a little on the inside. The situation was rather ridiculous in his mind.

"Using magic on them wouldn't be fair. It's not like they can cast spells themselves," Star responded.

Luck felt a twinge. As if there was a voice somewhere in the back of his mind trying to tell him something, but Luck decided did not want to hear what the voice had to say and ignored it.

"I thought you said they were 'evil'," Luck pointed out.

"Exactly, I don't want to stoop to their level," Star responded matter-of-factly.

Luck smiled slightly, before his expression changed to that of a frown. The voice in his mind was louder now, and he could not ignore it anymore. 'They're evil', 'It wouldn't be fair', 'I don't want to stoop to their level', these words made Luck hesitate. This morning he had been consumed with thoughts of having Star join the family, but would that be right? Should Luck get Star, a girl with obviously 'good intentions' involved in the underworld?

You're too soft, Luck thought to himself. Just do it.

But even with this mental argument in place, an argument that usually could goad Luck into doing what needed to be done, Luck found himself seriously hesitating. He felt as though he would severely regret involving Star in the 'family business'.

"So, were you looking for me?" Star asked, breaking into Luck's mental debate.

"I still have some questions," Luck responded, shoving the debate from his mind for right now. He would deal with his emotions later, right now he still had business he wanted to clear up with Star. But even as Luck thought this he felt a painful twinge in his chest. If his business was finished with Star, would he have a reason to go looking for her again?

Luck shook his head to clear the thought from his mind. Star worked at the bar, he could just go and see her any time he wanted. He could go see her…

Luck felt himself growing annoyed with the tangled mess of emotions inside of him. He needed to sort all of this out. But not now, he reminded himself. Not now.

"You said something about being from the future…" Luck began and then trailed off. He had absolutely no idea how to phrase the question, or if he was even asking a question. How the hell did someone verify if a person was from the future or not?

The corners of Star's mouth twitched in a smile.

"Yeah, I did say that. Sound's crazy, doesn't it?" Star replied.

"All of it sounds crazy," Luck commented.

Star laughed.

"That's a good point," She replied.

Luck wasn't sure what it was about today, but Star seemed much more relaxed, which was really odd, considering someone had sent people to kill her last night.

"I've thought really hard about this… and the past is the only answer I can come up with right now," Star explained, the smile vanishing to be replaced by a pensive look. "I've been to parallel universes before, and there's always something that doesn't match. Like a world where Abraham Lincoln didn't get assassinated, or a world where everyone knows that vampires exist. Things like that. But here, there's nothing. Absolutely nothing that makes it different from my 'past'."

"But what about us?" Luck asked.

"What about you?" Star responded, not following Luck's train of thought.

"You didn't know that us immortals were here," Luck elaborated.

"That's true," Star conceded. "But you aren't exactly advertising are you? I know a lot of things, but I by no means know everything."

That was true, after gaining immortality Luck, Berga and Keith had pretty much gone on as they always had. Of course they had displayed their immortality on occasion in order to surprise and demoralize their enemies, like in that incident with Gustavo. But no one, not even their most trusted men, knew about the immortality of the Gandor brothers. And Luck did not think there was anything that could happen that would change that. So Luck could not use the immortality of his brothers and himself to disprove Star's 'from the future' theory.

The two walked aimlessly in silence for nearly two blocks.

"Where are you headed?" Luck asked after a while, thinking that he should be getting back soon.

"Nowhere," Star replied. "I don't have any place I need to be until this evening and I don't have anything in particular to do."

"What about those people who attacked you? Or your compass?" Luck asked. It seemed odd to him that Star had so much free time when she had already admitted to needing to retrieve a piece of stolen property, and just the other night those guys had tried to carry out a hit on her. If it was Luck he would be planning right now how to take down those people and make them regret the day they decided to cross him.

Star's face clouded over and she appeared lost in thought. It was a long time before she answered Luck.

"Yes… I do have things I need to do… eventually. But I'm not in any position to do anything about it right now," Star responded.

This answer shocked Luck. He had thought with the power she had displayed last night Star would have been able to take care of everything in the span of an afternoon. Suddenly his thoughts shifted back to two nights ago at the bar. Star had said that she had tried to get her compass back, but she had gotten beaten off. The thought gave Luck pause. He had been impressed by Star's display of power the other night, but if these people who had gotten a hold of her compass had managed to beat Star, then how powerful were they? Luck felt himself begin to worry slightly. He would need to find out who these people are if for no other reason than to keep tabs on them. If people that powerful were on Gandor turf he needed to know about it.

Star glanced at Luck, and in her usual, slightly cryptic manner said:

"This isn't anything you need to worry yourself over."

"You're mistaken," Luck responded. After two days of insanity Luck finally felt as if he were in familiar territory again. "If these people are on Gandor turf then it is something I need to worry about."

Star sighed, feeling exasperated.

"If they were normal humans I wouldn't be arguing with you, but they aren't! Just keep out of it!"

Luck turned on Star and grasped her arm, preparing to force her to face him in order to give Star a lecture on just what being part of a Mafia family meant. But as Luck tightened his grip on Star's arm she let out a small cry of pain and jerked herself free, glaring back at Luck. It was the same arm that Luck had grasped the other night at the bar, when he was preparing himself to force answers from Star. The memory flooded back into Luck, causing him to notice that something was definitely amiss. Star's arm was still injured but, unlike that night, she was able to walk unassisted, yet that night Luck had thought that Star's leg injury had definitely been the worst of the two, but now her leg as perfectly healed while her arm still retained its wound.

"What…?" Luck began, glancing down at Star's leg.

"I healed it," Star said, refusing to meet Luck's eyes for some reason. "I figured my leg was the worse of the two so…"

Star trailed off. Luck stared hard into her face, which she kept turned away.

Star was definitely hiding something. If she could just heal herself, why hadn't she done so sooner? And while Luck was thinking about it, a lot of things she had said were not adding up. She had said that she was a mage, and from the way she talked, and her display of power, mages were a pretty big deal, so why couldn't she get her compass back from a bunch of 'dabblers' as she had called them. From the way Star talked they were just a bunch of hacks playing at magician, so how was it that Star got beat up by them? Star gave the impression of being powerful, yet the last few days had made Luck doubt that impression. Star was definitely hiding something, but what was it? Perhaps if he could get her somewhere more private he could ask her a few more questions…

Just as Luck was about to speak, a shout from down the street caught the attention of both him and Star. Star and Luck turned towards the origin of the sound and saw Maiza making his way up the street.

"Hello there," Maiza said, greeting Star and Luck. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"No," Star answered without even glancing at Luck.

Luck tugged the brim of his hat down over his eyes. It looked like he wasn't going to get an answer to his mystery anytime soon.

"I'll be seeing you later," Luck said to Star, and with a nod of acknowledgement to Maiza he walked away.

I'm getting tired of questions with no answers Luck thought to himself as he walked away. He was just about fed up with waiting.


	15. Chapter 13

Maiza watched as Luck left, feeling that he had in fact interrupted something. But that was nothing he was going to worry about, not now.

"Do you have any plans for today?" Maiza asked Star.

"Not until this evening, why?" Star responded.

"I have someone I would like you to meet," Maiza replied, and without further explanation turned and began to walk off down the street.

Star gave a slight shrug and followed Maiza. It wasn't as though she had any sort of pressing business at the moment. She decided to follow Maiza, wondering who this person was that he wanted her to meet.

Maiza led Star to a small restaurant tucked in on an out of the way street. Maiza had decided on this place since it was quiet with only a few customers and owners who were familiar with the Martillo family. This way if anything… strange… happened, the owner could be trusted to keep his mouth shut. The time of day was good too, just after breakfast but well before the lunch-rush would begin.

Maiza entered the shop, holding the door open for Star. Just as he had hoped, the place was currently empty. Maiza chose a table off to one side and out of the way of the big picture window out front. A deserted restaurant wouldn't do any good if passersby saw something odd going on through the window. As soon as they were seated Star ordered something to eat.

"You really do eat quite a bit," Maiza commented amiably. The only other person he could think of that ate as much as Star was Pecho, and Maiza knew what Pecho looked like. He glanced at Star's figure while she was turned towards the waitress. Despite Star's enormous appetite, she was rather on the skinny side.

"Magic takes a lot of energy," Star replied in a lowered tone as the waitress turned away to give the order to the cook. "The best way for me to get my energy back is to eat."

Maiza couldn't disagree with the argument. In the century and a half that he had been alive Maiza had learned the value of food, despite his immortality. Even normal humans became weak and vulnerable if they were denied nourishment for too long. If it took three square meals for a normal man to do a normal day's work then it stood to reason that to do an abnormal day's work much more than three meals would be needed.

"So, who is this person you want me to meet?" Star asked.

"He's an old acquaintance of mine," Maiza answered.

"Old as in normal old, or your kind of old?" Star asked, raising an eye brow.

"He's much older than me, I know what much," Maiza answered with a smile. He had never thought to ask Ronnie how long he had been around, but Maiza could guess it had been a long while.

"Hmm," Star responded as the waitress brought out pancakes and scrambled eggs. She poured syrup over her pancakes and ketchup over her eggs, waiting for the waitress to leave before she began to speak to Maiza again.

"I'm kinda curious, why would you want me to meet one of your immortal buddies?" Star asked between bites of food.

Maiza was silent for a moment as he thought about how to answer that question. He was the only one out of everyone at Alveare who knew about Ronnie's true nature. While Maiza didn't think that Star would reveal Ronnie's secret to anyone, at least not on purpose, it really wasn't his place to go revealing the secrets of others.

"He's the one who showed me how to make the elixir of immortality," Maiza responded after a while.

Star paused, her fork half way to her mouth.

"Really now," Star responded, staring intently at Maiza. "This might be interesting."

Almost as if on cue Ronnie entered the restaurant.

Maiza turned to greet his old friend but the words stuck in his throat as an indescribable pressure descended on the room. Maiza knew that when he wanted Ronnie could exert this powerful presence which he used to quickly gain the upper hand in any sort of situation he entered into. But this was beyond anything that Maiza had ever felt from Ronnie before; was it really necessary? Star might have unusual powers of her own but Maiza could never imagine the small slip of a girl next to him as being a match for Ronnie, an immortal demon. Maiza turned to look at Star, to see how she was taking this. He turned slowly towards her, the pressure in the room making Maiza feel as if he were a thousand feet beneath the sea. When Maiza finally faced Star he felt surprise added to the already convoluted mix of emotions running through him. It wasn't that Ronnie was trying to be exceptionally intimidating; it was that Star was somehow releasing that same sort of pressure that Ronnie was and, combined, the effect was crushing.

Star remained seated as Ronnie entered, her body relatively relaxed, but the look on her face intense. Star's eyes glowed the same pale blue as they had that night she had been attacked, but contrary to those events Star's breath remained invisible.

"I think for the sake of everyone in this building we should stop this little intimidation match," Star said in a voice that was calm but with a slight steely edge.

"I agree," was Ronnie's response as he approached the table.

Instantly the atmosphere in the room became calmer. Maiza felt the same sensation from the lifting pressure as his did when his body resuscitated itself. This display had filled Maiza with certain misgivings, although he could not be sure if this was due to actual concerns on his part or the tension and anxiety that had been induced by the effects of both Star and Ronnie.

Ronnie took the seat opposite Star and removed his hat, setting it on the table.

"I suppose now is the time for proper introductions," Star said, breaking the silence. "I am Star Auros, mage."

"Ronnie Sukiart," Ronnie replied. If he was surprised or puzzled by Star's introduction as a mage, he didn't show it.

"I hope this doesn't seem too forward, but might I ask what you are?" Star asked.

Maiza was surprised by this question. He knew that Star could tell the nature of someone simply by being near them, and she had even claimed to have known some demons, so why was she asking Ronnie about his true nature? Did she want to hear it from Ronnie himself? It was then that Maiza remembered that, at first, Star had not been able to tell that he himself was an immortal. Perhaps there were different kinds of demons and Star wanted to know which kind? Maiza's question was answered in the next few sentences that passed between the magician and demon.

"I am a demon," Ronnie answered, a small smile playing around his lips. He was clearly enjoying this encounter. Maiza could tell that he was interested in Star.

"Really now," Star replied. "Is that what you call yourself or what others call you?"

At that moment Maiza realized what Star was getting at. Over the many years he had been alive he had been called many different names by those who accidentally discovered his immortality; demon, devil, monster, but really he was not any of those things. They were just names. In fact, when he and the others had first summoned the demon Ronnie that night on the Advenna Avis they had been referring to him as a demon, yet Ronnie had remarked about how they called him a demon when none of them had ever seen a demon, angel or god. Obviously he had been trying to make the point that those words were simply that, words. Words that were applied without any thought to the truth behind the nature of the being to which they were applied.

Ronnie continued to smile.

"I suppose you could say it is a name others have called me by, but I have become accustomed to it."

Star sighed and leaned back in her chair scratching the back of her head absentmindedly. Her manner appeared to be completely changed. Before she had appeared sharp and focused with an expression that befitted one who claimed magical powers. But now she looked like the slightly strange, child-like young girl Maiza had first met. And in that instant Maiza realized why he had felt intrigued by Star. She reminded him of himself. That smiling, innocent and careless nature was a shield. She was hiding behind a nonchalant exterior.

"Really thought," Star said. "You're not like any demon I've ever met, even the ones that used to be human."

Ronnie simply smiled mysteriously.

Star returned to eating.

The three of them sat in silence, each pondering their own thoughts.

Maiza had definitely learned something interesting today, albeit it was not what he had expected to learn. Star was obviously hiding some sort of weakness or wound. Just as Maiza thought that the image of his brother swam to the surface of his mind. It had been over one hundred years, yet sometimes the pain came back as clearly as if it had been yesterday. This caused Maiza to look at Star differently now. She was alone, often embarking on dangerous missions, if her words were to be believed, and yet she had never once mentioned a family or parents. Obviously a mother and father would have severe reservations about letting their daughter wander off on her own, unaccompanied by anyone.

At that moment, Ronnie stood and replaced his hat, interrupting Maiza's train of thought.

"I am a busy man," Ronnie said, addressing Star, "so I must be on my way."

"I'll join you," Maiza said. After all, no matter how much he was interested in Star, he could not spend the entire morning with her, even though he would have rather liked to. He did have business to attend to.

"'Bye," Star said as the two left the store. She appeared to be too preoccupied with her food for a more extensive farewell.

Once outside Maiza turned to Ronnie.

Before Maiza could even begin to ask his question, Ronnie replied with an answer.

"She isn't anything to be worried about," Ronnie replied. Despite having not seen the display of power that Star had put on one night ago, Ronnie could fairly accurately judge her powers. "She is intriguing thought. I feel like things will be very interesting… at least for a little while…"

With that response, Ronnie turned and left.

Maiza remained a moment longer, turning to stare at Star through the restaurant window. She was still eating, completely oblivious to Maiza's gaze. For the first time since he had met her Maiza saw Star as small and vulnerable. He wondered why he had never noticed this before. Despite what she had said and what she had done, Maiza felt as though he had not truly had any of his questions answered. He did not doubt the answers that Star had already given. After years of life he had learned to get a feel for when someone was lying, and he knew that, so far, Star had not lied to him. But she was definitely still keeping secrets. A voice in Maiza's head told him that this should be the end of the matter. Star was no threat to the Martillo family, so what did it matter if she was keeping secrets? But for a reason Maiza could not completely understand he felt concern, not for the Martillo family but for Star herself.

Well, a little oddity every now and then doesn't hurt, Maiza thought to himself as he finally turned and walked away. He decided to stay with Star a little while longer.

Of course at that point in time he, nor anyone, could have known how 'interesting' their lives were about to become.


	16. Chapter 14

"Shit!"

The sudden outburst caused Firo to turn towards the source of the noise.

One of the black jack dealers was pushing himself up from where he had fallen.

"You alright?" Firo asked, extending a hand to help the man up.

"I'm fine. Just tripped," the man said, getting to his feet.

"Be more careful," Firo cautioned in a friendly tone before turning back to his business.

It was a little odd though. There had been nothing there to trip over. The thought flickered through Firo's mind temporarily before he busied himself with the casino.

The kitchen staff had just arrived at the bar. They were preparing everything for that evening. Nicholas had shown up to oversee everything. It was not something he necessarily needed to do, but he was particularly loyal to the Gandor family and wanted to make sure that there were no problems with the establishments left in his care. Nicholas stood at the bar, looking over a list of the various purchases for the kitchen. It was then that he heard the piano. It sounded as though a small child had banged on the keys.

"Star…" Nicholas began, looking up at the piano but stopping short. There was no one there. The sound had been caused by an ashtray which had fallen on the keys.

"Odd…" Nicholas muttered under his breath as he stepped out from behind the bar to remove the ashtray.

Star did no smoke, and she did not abide by anyone smoking in her general vicinity. For this reason Nicholas made sure that there was never an ashtray on or near the piano.

Nicholas removed the ashtray and looked around the room. He thought that someone must have moved it while cleaning the room. But no a single table was missing an ashtray. This slightly perturbed Nicholas, but he did not think too much on it. He walked back to the bar, setting the ashtray down on the bar top, and returned to his paper work.

"Hi Firo," one of the roulette girls said as she entered through the back entrance to begin her shift.

"Hi," Firo responded, glancing up from a sheaf of papers before him. Firo loved being part of the Martillo family, especially now that he was trusted with the responsibility of running a casino, but he absolutely hated the paper work, only the thought that it was for the good of the Martillo family made it bearable.

Firo returned his attention to the papers in front of him, but almost as soon has he had done so there was a hideous cracking noise and a short scream.

Firo jumped to his feet, reaching for the knife at his hip.

The woman who had just entered was lying on the floor among the broken remains of the chair she had temporarily occupied to change her shoes.

Upon realizing there was no threat Firo relaxed slightly.

"You aren't hurt are you?" Firo asked, hurrying from behind the desk. He helped the woman sit up.

"I think I'll be fine," she said, massaging a spot on her head. "The chair just collapsed on me though…"

Firo glanced at the broken chair as he helped the woman to her feet. It wasn't a particularly old chair and it wasn't in bad shape either.

Huh, weird…Firo thought to himself. The casino seemed to be having a lot of bad luck today.

Nicholas was roused from his poker game by the sound of shattering glass coming from the bar room. He pushed himself to his feet and hurried into the room.

At first nothing seemed amiss. If Nicholas had been by himself he might have thought he was hearing things, but his poker companions had also heard the noise and followed after him. Nicholas and his two friends slowly spread out into the room, looking for the source of the sound.

After a few moments of searching the source of the disturbance was discovered. Nicholas had checked behind the bar and found the rows of glass tumblers shattered.

"What the hell?" Nicholas said under his breath as he looked at the coating of glass shards that covered the shelf and the floor immediately under it. Crazy things had been happening all day. He only hoped that nothing too drastic would happen when the bar opened for the evening. If it did, he wasn't sure he would know what to do.

Star arrived at the bar at her usual time, but instead of proceeding immediately towards her dressing room, she stopped just inside the door. Slowly Star surveyed the room, a slightly suspicious look on her face. Still glancing around the room Star slowly slid behind the curtain to change into her dress.

Had Nicholas been in the room, he probably would have noticed. But with all of the commotion earlier in the day he had decided to take up position in the bar room, so he could be on hand incase anything else odd happened.

Star had just finished changing when she heard shouts of anger from the other side of the room. Star quickly emerged from behind the curtain to find the four individuals who had been engaged in a poker game upon her entry in a heated argument, the deck of poker cards flung across the room as if someone had swiped at them with his hand.

Star slowly approached the four, who were arguing over who had thrown the cards. Each of them denied being the one to interrupt the game and was inventing a plethora of reasons why the other player and not the accused was the one who had upset the cards.

Star quietly gathered the cards and set them on the table.

"Why don't you just start the game over again?" Star suggested to the arguing quartet.

This proffered advice was greeted by growls of 'shut your mouth' and 'mind your own business'.

With an annoyed sigh Star turned and left the men to sort their problem out their own way. Of course Star believed that all of them were innocent of up ending the cards.

A few steps into the hallway Star turned and looked back at the room she had just left, the arguing voices carrying softly down the hall. Her face darkened for a moment before she turned back and made her way to the bar room.

Luck was already seated in his usual corner by the time Star had entered. Despite the bar having just opened it was already quite full. There were plenty of people who wanted to drink away the depression, if they could afford to. Luck watched as Star paused by the piano, surveyed the room, and then sat down.

She's acting a little strange tonight, Luck thought to himself. Of course there was a lot about Star that he found strange, but her behavior this evening struck Luck as being particularly unusual.

Star had barely finished her first song before trouble began. Near the middle of the tables, towards the far wall, two men had begun and altercation. From the voices that drifted across the room Luck judged that one man was accusing the other of striking him. The second man vehemently denied this. They had just come to blows when the bouncers arrived and quickly showed the two to the door.

Luck took a sip of his whisky. Obviously they hadn't been in the bar long enough to get drunk, so either they had been out drinking before showing up here, or it was some kind of drug, maybe both. No matter, since they had already been ejected from the premises it was no longer his concern. Luck returned his gaze to Star.

She continued to play but Luck could see that she was troubled. Her eyes were shifting about the room, as though she was looking for something or someone.

Luck followed her gaze. He had to admit, the atmosphere in the room was not what is usually was. People entered in good enough spirits, but once in the building for more than fifteen minutes they began to shift around uncomfortably. There were a few more arguments; again one person accused the other of poking or hitting them, while the second person always denied having done anything. Occasionally Luck could even hear a shout or two from the kitchen as something went wrong.

It just seemed as if something was working against the bar that day.

Star's song came to an end, but instead of immediately launching into the next one she paused, hands resting lightly on the keys. She was staring at the music stand on the piano, a dark and thoughtful look on her face.

After apparently reaching some sort of conclusion Star began to play again, but this time her song was very different from before. It sounded rather heavy and a bit chant-ish. Sort of like a hymn. It took Luck a few minutes to realize that Star was singing in Latin.

What are you doing that for, Star? Luck thought to himself as he watched her. Can't you tell the mood in this room is dark enough? Play something lighter!

Something else in the room apparently shared Lucks sentiments, for merely moments after Star began playing there came a scraping sound. A look of recognition dawned on Star's face while she played. She had heard the sound, but what happened next occurred to quickly for Star to react. In the next second the piano bench slid from under Star's body.

Luck watched as, in slow motion, Star began to collapse to the floor. But, before Star could completely finish her descent, her head slammed forward quickly and with vicious intensity into the keyboard. Luck blinked and in the next instant Star was curled limply on the ground.

Luck had felt as if the whole episode had unfolded over minutes but in reality it had all taken place in the same amount of time that had been required for Luck to stand up from his chair. Despite jumping to his feet, Luck could only stand and stare in silence. It had looked as though some invisible person had seized the back legs of the piano bench and pulled in from beneath Star's body.

The room echoed Luck's own silence as everyone stared, transfixed, and Star's unconscious body. Yet despite the suffocating silence, Luck felt as if someone in the room was laughing.


	17. Chapter 15

Within moments Luck shook himself free from the shock that had rooted him to the spot. He rushed over to Star and began to examine her. Luck lightly brushed away the hair from Star's fore head. The place where her head had struck the piano was bleeding slightly and already beginning to turn a nasty purplish-blue.

After the initial shock had worn off the room began to buzz with voices. Quite a few people got up and left out right.

This turn of events had brought the card playing men from the back. They were concerned that there might be trouble.

"Hey, help me carry her," Luck said to them, gesturing at Star.

One of the men, heavily build much in the same manner as Berga, gingerly lifted Star from the floor and carried her into the back room.

Luck followed after the man, dragging a chair over to the sofa upon which Star was laid. Within seconds a bus boy from the kitchen arrived carrying a damp cloth.

Luck took the cloth from the boy and gingerly laid is across Star's forehead. Having done this Luck sat back heavily in the chair, staring at the unconscious girl before him.

Sensing that Luck would be best left alone the rest of the men, who had followed Luck into the room to receive any kind of orders Luck might give them, quietly exited the room.

What the hell was that? Luck thought to himself. The only way that bench could have moved is if someone had pulled it, and the only way Star could have his the piano hard enough to give herself a concussion is if someone had slammed her head into the key board. But Luck had watched the whole event. No one had been there… Or could they?

Luck thought back to that night in the park when Star had been attacked. She had used some kind of magic to make them unnoticeable to the people around them. Could another person have used the magic to keep people in the room, Luck included, from noticing their presence? Or could they have actually been invisible? Star said that out right invisibility was difficult, but she never said that it was impossible. If a person had been invisible, or even just unnoticeable, would Star still be able to tell they were there? Wait, come to think of it, she did play that very unusual song right before she was injured. What had that been about?

Luck pinched the bridge of his nose. He could not remember a time when he had felt so tense. Something had just happened, Star had been attacked, and he couldn't do anything about it. He didn't even really know what had attacked her. Was it a person or something else? Star had mentioned other 'things' that were in Manhattan. Either way Luck could not see it, so he could not extract his revenge. Speaking of which, could he even touch it? Did invisible mean incorporeal as well? That couldn't be true; it had moved the piano bench, hadn't it?

"Dammit," Luck said under his breath. He didn't want to admit it, but right now he was feeling pretty helpless. There might or might not be something in the building, attacking his family, and he couldn't fight against it.

Luck felt as if he spent an eternity setting there next to Star, turning thoughts over and over in his head, trying to make sense of what had happened. But no matter how hard he tried, Luck just seemed to make the tangled mess of events even worse the longer he thought about them.

Luck suddenly emerged from the snarled mess in his head at the sound of a low groan. Despite Luck's impression, only five minutes had passed between the moment he entered the room and when Star began to stir.

Star groaned softly as her eyes fluttered open. She blinked a few times as her vision came into focus and then turned her head to stare at Luck.

"It got me… didn't it?" Star said quietly.

"Something… got you," Luck replied. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to a question like that.

"What did you see happen?" Star asked.

"The piano bench came out from under you and your head slammed into the piano," Luck replied. Now this was a question he could handle.

Star sighed and began to push herself up.

"Hold on," Luck said, leaning forward and placing a hand on Star's shoulder. "You sure you should be doing that?"

"It's fine," Star replied. "If I have a concussion…"

Before Star finished her sentence she rolled off of the couch and onto her feet. In a moment she was over by the back door to the bar. She threw the door open and would have fallen face first though the opening if it wasn't for the strong grip she had on the door frame. This flurry of action was immediately followed by retching sounds as Star vomited in the alley way outside.

After a moment Star pulled herself back inside, leaning heavily against the wall.

"Ok… I might have a concussion…" She said.

Luck sighed inwardly. Sometimes he felt like looking after Star was like looking after a kid.

"Why don't you just sit back down?" Luck said, gently putting an arm around Star's shoulders and helping her back to the couch.

"So what just happened?" Luck asked, returning to his seat and staring intently at Star.

"I'm pretty sure it was a poltergeist," Star replied.

"A… poltergeist…" Luck replied slowly. A lot had happened in the last week, but Luck still needed sometime to process when Star suddenly brought up something supernatural.

"Yeah, y'know, noisy ghost?" Star said.

"Yes. I know what a poltergeist is," Luck responded.

He paused and then continued.

"How did it get here?"

Star leaned back, closing her eyes and rubbing the blooming bruise on her forehead tenderly.

"I have no idea, honestly," Star responded. "There's a lot of ways, someone brought in something that it was attached to, it was attached to a person who came into the bar, or someone put it here on purpose."

Luck felt himself tense up slightly at the last suggestion. It was possible for someone to put a poltergeist into a building on purpose?

"How do we figure out which one it is? And how do I get rid of it?" Luck asked.

Star opened her eye slightly.

"I think you have your pronouns mixed up there," Star replied. "You're gonna be finding out who brought it in, and, with any luck, I'm going to be getting rid of it."

That sounded more manageable to Luck, even if he didn't much like the idea of giving the hard work to a girl, particularly an injured one.

"How do I find out how it got here?" Luck asked.

"Well," Star began, "first find out when this shit started. I think it started sometime today because I didn't sense the presence of the poltergeist before, but shit like this could have been happening before I got here, and the damn thing would just hide whenever I showed up. I wasn't looking for there to be a poltergeist here so there's a good chance I would have over looked it. Anyway, once you figure out when it showed up just figure out if a new person started showing up or if something came into the bar that's still here."

So he just needed to find someone or something new that showed up around the time the 'poltergeist' activity started? That sounded really easy… and for some reason Luck felt as though anything involving magic or the paranormal should not be that easy.

"So what are you going to do after I find this person or object?" Luck asked.

"If it's a person keep them from coming in, if it's an object then get rid of it," Star replied.

That really did sound easy… but Star had only covered the first two options. She hadn't said anything about the third.

"And if someone put it here?" Luck prompted.

Star groaned.

"That… will be difficult…" Star said.

"You won't be able to do anything?" Luck asked. For some reason he felt surprised.

"I never said that," Star answered, sitting up. "I just said it would be difficult. I'm a mage, not an exorcist. What I would do, if it was put here on purpose, is try a blessing and purification. That ought to cast it out."

Luck didn't much like the sound of that. Star didn't sound like she had the ability to get rid of the poltergeist.

"Why don't you just, I don't know, kill it?" Luck asked. He wasn't sure of a ghost could technically 'die', but that sounded like it would be much easier and more… permanent… than Star's option.

"Luck," Star said, looking him in the eye. "You have no idea what you are talking about, so I won't yell at you or call you an idiot, but I will say that strait up destroying something supernatural is usually very, very difficult, and a really bad idea… even if I could do it…"

The last part was added in a whisper as Star broke eye contact with Luck. She was leaning forward now with her hands clasp together, a worried look on her face.

Luck studied Star's face intently. She was definitely keeping secrets. Star beat the hell out of those thugs that attacked them in the park, but she in turn got beat up by a group of weaklings. She shows up to work seriously injured, but the next day she was fine, well, sort of. He leg had been fixed up somehow but her arm was still injured. Luck had a feeling getting the answers would be a lot harder than just asking. Star had answered a lot of Luck's questions, but conveniently left out information about herself.

"Alright," Luck said, standing up and gently resting his hand on Star's head. "I'll figure out what is going on with the poltergeist."

A small smile spread across Star's lips.

Yes, Luck did have a lot of questions about Star that he would like answered, but for the moment that could wait until this poltergeist business was cleared up.

With a sigh Luck got to his feet. His life certainly had become more interesting with Star in it, but when things began to cause problems for the organization then he needed to get serious.

"I'm going to close the bar tomorrow, you don't need to show up," Luck said.

"I really don't think it's that serious," Star said. "I was only hurt because I provoked it. Outside of that it should be a week at least before it gets up the power to do anything serious."

Luck glanced at Star. Luck did trust what she had just said, he didn't believe Star would lie to him about something serious like that, but the reason he was closing the bar wasn't that he was over estimating the poltergeist. Star had been hurt, which meant everything at this establishment was on hold until the matter was cleared up. Even though he thought this, Luck didn't dare to say it out loud to Star. He could see how much effort she put into standing on her own despite how battered she got, and Luck did not want to insult her pride.

But pride and health were a different matter, and Luck knew from past experiences that concussions could be serious.

"You live alone, don't you?" Luck asked. He knew that the time Star broke her leg she had stayed with that little band of miscreants that huddled on the edge of Gandor and Martillo territory, but Luck had the impression that that was more of an exception than the rule.

"Yeah… I do…" Star answered, once again avoiding eye contact. She hated it when people asked her questions about where she slept at night.

"You need to find someone to stay with you," Luck told her. "If you've got a concussion then falling asleep alone could be bad."

"I know," Star replied, getting to her feet, "but I don't think-"

She stopped a little short as the room began to sway and spin as she stood up. Luck put a hand on Star's shoulder to help steady her.

"You're not staying alone," Luck said. He was used to people listening to him when he spoke, but if Star had her own ideas it didn't matter what other people said. She was just that kind of person, which put Luck into an awkward situation. If he outright ordered Star to do something then she would definitely refuse, just on principle alone. And if he tried to force her to do something she would fight back or disappear. So it was a rather delicate matter, getting Star to cooperate.

Luck gently pressed down on Star's shoulders, guiding her back onto the couch.

"Do you have anyone you might be able to stay with, just for tonight?" Luck asked. "You need to take care of yourself if you want to do this job right."

Star gave a sigh of resignation.

"There is this one place I sleep at sometimes…" She said reluctantly.

"I'll take you there," Luck told her.

"I can get there fine on my own," Star replied.

"You can barely stand up on your own," Luck pointed out.

Star huffed slightly and looked away. She didn't have the strength to put up a protracted argument, so Luck did not have to press his point.

"Just stay here," Luck continued. "I'll go tell Nicholas what is going on and then I'll take you to where ever it is you're staying."

Star silently watched Luck leave the room. Once he had disappeared back into the bar Star closed her eyes and tilted her head upward. She opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling.

"Now which came first… the chicken or the egg…?" she muttered to herself.

The wheels were turning. Star had experienced moments like this countless times before. If this were a novel it could be said this is where the plot truly begins. But she was still left with the question of whether she had caused this series of events to begin, or if this situation would have played itself out regardless of her presence.

"Either way I'm involved," Star murmured. "I just hope this doesn't escalate… a war now just might kill me…"

"Huh?"

Luck had just reentered the room.

"Did you say something?" he asked.

"No," Star said, giving Luck one of her mask-like smiles, quietly closing her anxiety up inside of herself. "Just talking to myself."

"Right…" Luck replied in a slightly uneasy tone, putting on his over coat.

"Gimme a minute to change," Star said beginning to get to her feet when Luck cut her off.

"I don't think so," he said. "I'll get your things and you can change later. I don't want you collapsing or anything."

"Fine," Star said, sitting back down.

He didn't strike me as the mother hen type… but whatever… Star thought to herself. Although if she were honest having someone doing things for her made Star edgy; it made her feel as if she were somehow vulnerable.

Luck emerged from behind the curtain with Star's bag slung over his shoulder. Without another word Luck helped Star to her feet and they left together.


	18. Chapter 16

Behind the bar was a small and nearly empty parking lot. This was the depression after all, and not many people had money to spend on cars, although there were always those that managed to find a dollar to spend on gambling or booze. Luck led Star over to a 1930's Plymouth coup painted a sleek black.

Star paused and let out a little gasp of excitement. Luck stopped as well and raised an eyebrow. Cars had been around for quite a while, and it's not like Luck owned a particularly fancy or expensive car. Although it was the depression so perhaps she was just surprised by the fact that he owned a car at all.

"I've never seen one up close before," Star whispered in reverence. "I mean this was one of the cars of the depression. It's a Plymouth, right?"

Without even waiting for an answer Star broke away from Luck and walked up to the car. She gently brushed her fingers over the hood of the car and circled from the driver's side, which had been facing Luck and Star, to the passenger's side of the front end.

"Oh man…" She whispered under her breath, "There are people who'd pay a fortune for this…"

"Star… what are you talking about?" Luck asked, coming up behind her. To him is sounded almost like she was babbling nonsense.

Star jumped slightly, as though she had forgotten Luck's presence.

"Oh um... right," Star fumbled for the right words, her cheeks pink. "This is um… the past. Right… uh… what year was it again?"

Luck felt himself smile despite the situation. He felt that, for just a moment, Star had completely let down her guard, like the wall that she kept between herself and other people had just melted away… and all it had taken was a car. It was rather comedic but, somehow, emotional at the same time.

"It's 1933," Luck responded.

"1933…" Star repeated and suddenly a distant look came over her face, as though she were remembering something unpleasant.

"Star… are you alright?" Luck said, worried that he had done something that might cause her to throw up her defenses again.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine," Star said, sighing, a weary smile on her face. "I just had a… silly thought…"

"Didn't look like you were thinking of anything funny," Luck commented as he walked around to the passenger side. He opened the door and dropped Star's bag on the floor board and then stood back, one hand resting on the handle of the car door.

Star stared at Luck, as though she expected him to say something.

Luck stared back, wondering whether Star was going to say something or get in the car. After an awkward pause he spoke.

"Aren't you going to get it?" Luck asked, gesturing at the car.

"Huh...? Oh!" A look of realization dawned on Star's face. Luck felt a little shocked that she had not realized he had been holding the door open for her.

"The only guy who's ever done this for me was my grandpa," Star said, as she got into the car.

Then, she did something else that Luck found odd. Star turned in her seat so that she was facing him and reached with her right hand towards the space between the edge of the seat the car body. There was nothing there so Luck had absolutely no idea what she was doing.

When Star realized her mistake, and realize that Luck had been watching, she blushed and turned to face forward.

"What were you doing?" Luck asked her curiously as he got into the driver's seat.

"Seat belt," Star muttered.

"What?" Luck asked, as he started the car.

"I was looking for the seat belt," Star said in a louder voice, still a little embarrassed.

"Is that something common on cars… in the future…?" Luck continued, finding it hard to believe that he had just added the 'in the future' part.

"Standard. Required by law, in fact," Star commented, looking a bit more comfortable with this question than the last one. "Been that way since about the sixties."

Luck felt confused. Cars had not existed in the eighteen sixties, but in a moment he realized that Star had not been talking about the eighteen sixties.

"The nineteen sixties?" Luck queried as he shifted the car out of park and exited the parking lot.

"Yup," Star replied.

Luck felt slightly dazed. In thirty years there would be a law that required all cars to have 'seat belts'. It wasn't that all cars were likely to have seat belts. It was a fact that they would. In essence, Luck just received a bit of information about the future.

"Must have been fairly controversial," Luck commented, trying to get a grip on the conversation and his nerves. He couldn't imagine the auto manufacturers easily agreeing to anything the government said. Hell, no one had listened to prohibition.

"I have no idea," Star replied, staring out the window. "I only know the approximate date from my driver's ed books."

Driver's ed? What the hell is that? Luck thought as he drove on.

"But it couldn't have been that long ago," Luck continued.

"It was fifty years ago!" Star replied in surprise.

There was a screech of brakes and Star slid forward a few inches, almost hitting the dashboard.

"And that is why there are seat belts," She said, slightly breathless from the sudden stop. "Why'd you…?"

Star turned to face Luck to find him staring at her in shock.

"Luck…?" Star said uncertainly.

Luck did not immediately respond. He hadn't really believed her too much at first, she Star had said she came from the future. Then she began to talk about the car, and these seat belts. The law was passed in the nineteen sixties, that was thirty years from now… but it was fifty years in the past for Star… so just how far in the future had she come from?

"But wouldn't your parents…?" Luck began. His brain was still grappling with the numbers.

"No… the only ones old enough to remember would be my grandparents," Star answered, a little worried about Luck's sudden change in demeanor.

Star had mentioned her grandfather earlier. He was the only one who had ever held a car door open for her.

"Your grandfather… he was born…" Luck stammered, still trying to gain control of his wits.

"In two years," Star replied.

That last comment sent Luck's mind reeling. His hands slid from the steering wheel. Luck pressed on hand against his head, eyes closed.

Her grandfather hasn't been born yet… her grandfather! Luck thought. He was trying to regain control of himself, but the more he turned the information over and over in his head, the more comical the situation seemed. He could almost laugh.

"Luck… Luck! Are you ok? You're creeping me out," Star said, anxiety clear in her voice.

It was at that moment that Luck realized he really had been laughing. He stopped. The sound of Star's voice had brought him back to reality… whatever reality was anymore. Luck turned to face Star again and saw her eyes were filled with concern. She was half out of her seat with her hands pressed against the edge of Luck's car seat and the dashboard, her body angled slightly forward.

Luck gazed deep into the deep blue pools that where Star's eyes. She had been concerned for him. So concerned she had nearly left her seat. But she hadn't run away like a normal person would. She had come closer to him. Her golden hair glowed in the faint light from the street lamps and filtered into the car. It cascaded down Star's shoulders, close enough for Luck to touch my merely raising his hand.

"Are you ok now?" Star asked, a modicum of relief entering her voice once Luck's laughter stopped.

"Yes, I'm fine now," Luck answered, his customary faint smile back on his face.

It didn't matter how far in the future Star came from. When or where, all that mattered right now was that she was in front of him. For Luck, this was reality, this was the present. And that was all that mattered.

Star sighed in relief and settled back into her seat.

"Don't scare people like that!" she exclaimed, a faint, relieved smile on her face.

"I'll try not to do it again," Luck replied genially as he took the wheel once again.

As the car began moving forward once again, Luck decided to try and change the subject.

"What was that silly thought you mentioned earlier?" He asked, feeling that that might be a safe topic.

"Are you sure you want me answering any more of your questions?" Star asked in a half teasing, half serious voice.

"I am," Luck responded, and for a split second he wondered if had made the right choice.

"I just thought about hopping over to Germany and killing Hitler," Star replied.

Luck raised an eye brow. For some reason he had never expected Star to have a vendetta against anyone… well… maybe geese… but certainly not someone all the way in Germany.

"Who's…?" Luck began, but he realized the answer before the question was out of his mouth. He had read it in the papers months ago. This Hitler over in Germany had been named chancellor back in January.

"Why would you want to kill him?" Luck asked. Political assassination seemed a little heavy for someone like Star to suggest. Of course, Luck would understand if someone who could time travel would want to kill Kaiser Wilhelm II.

"To stop the second world war," Star replied simply.

For a second time there came the screeching of breaks, this time successfully sending Star sliding into the dashboard; however, seeing as how the car had not been moving very fast, no physical damage was done.

"Dammit Luck!" Star shouted, pushing herself away from the dashboard and back into the seat. "If you're gonna keep doing this then park the damn car!"

As per Star's request, Luck parked the car on the side of the street. It wouldn't do to be making all these sudden stops. If a cop happened to see it, it might cause problems.

"A second world war?" Luck questioned.

"Yeah," Star answered. "In six years in Europe, course it'll take another two years and the bombing of Pearl Harbor to get America involved."

Luck was barely out of diapers when the First World War had started, and he had been raised in a generation that believed that it really had been the war to end all wars. To hear that another world war would start up barely twenty years later seemed unbelievable to him.

"And the death toll is gonna be nothing like the First World War," Star continued, staring through the windshield. "Though this time civilian casualties are gonna outweigh military casualties by a long shot. And then there's the holocaust…"

"The hollow what?" Luck asked. Star was rattling off this information way too fast.

"The holocaust, as it will be known, is predominantly used for the systematic extermination of the Jews of Europe by Hitler's war machine. Of course there were plenty other groups of people that were subjected to his genocide as well, mostly Russians. Basically Hitler takes the execution of people he deems undesirable and raises it to the level of an industrial slaughter house."

Luck felt stunned. Like most people of that time period he was slightly prejudiced against those of the Jewish faith, but he could not imagine one man slaughtering them because of their faith.

Star turned to look Luck in the eye.

"World War one is going to look like a drop in the bucket compared to this," Star told him.

Luck nodded and started the car again. What else could he do? He did not like the idea of war and endless slaughter as much as the next man, but that was, what did Star say, eight years in the future? Nothing he could do about it now. But war did mean wide spread social upheaval which would definitely affect the family. Luck silently filed this important information away in his brain.

Eight years… that would make it… Nineteen forty-one. Luck memorized the date. Since that war started in Europe first then he would at least have fore warning.

Luck and Star remained silent for the rest of the car ride.

Finally the car came to a stop outside of the Genoard mansion.

"You're staying with that little gang of kids?" Luck commented as he looked up at the house.

"Yeah," Star responded rather un-emphatically as she exited the car.

Luck said nothing but he secretly felt some misgivings about leaving Star here. Strange things were happening, dangerous things, and Luck seriously doubted the gang of misfits within the mansion's walls would be able to protect Star.

Star had already reached the front door and rang the doorbell. Before Luck could join her on the door step the door swung open revealing a warm light radiating out into the darkness. It took a minute for Luck's eyes to adjust to the sudden like, but when they did he felt a tiny bit of relief. Claire had opened the door.

"Huh? And who are you?" Claire asked, looking surprised at Star's presence on the door step.

Star, for her part, looked equally surprised, since she had never met Claire before and wasn't sure if he was part of Jacuzzi's gang or not.

In a second the moment passed as Luck drew even with Star. Then Claire's face broke out in a wide grin.

"Luck, how ya doing?" Claire asked, clapping Luck on the shoulder.

"Fine, fine," Luck answered good naturedly. "I'm actually a little surprised you stuck around, Claire."

"Well what kind of man would I be if I just left my fiancée here all by her lonesome? And it's Felix now," as Claire spoke he stood back to allow the two entry into the hall.

"So what brings you out here?" Claire asked once he had closed the door.

"Star needed someone to stay with…" Luck began but then trailed off. Star and Claire had not been properly introduced, and it would be rude to carry on a conversation with the both of them without introductions.

"So this is your girl, huh?" Claire said, shifting his attentions to Star.

"The name's Felix Walken, no matter what anyone else might say," Claire said, holding out his hand while shooting a disapproving sideways look at Luck.

"Star Auros," Star replied slightly confused. Luck had called him Claire but the man himself stated that his name was Felix Walken.

Whatever, Star thought. She was tired from all the chaos earlier and didn't particularly care what Felix or Claire called himself.

"Hey," Claire said, taking a step closer to Star and pushing her bangs out of the way before glancing up at Luck. "Anyone giving you trouble?"

"It's nothing," Star muttered, stepping back out of Claire's reach and flattening her bangs over the wound.

"I'm taking care of it," Luck assured Claire. "No need for you to involve yourself."

"If you say so," Claire said shooting one last sideways look at Star. "But if you ever need my help, just say so."

"I'll do that," Luck said as he left.

Claire waved him out and then shut the door, leaving himself and Star alone in the foyer.

"Well," Claire said, turning to face Star. "You're a weird one."

"Uh… what…?" Star responded, caught off guard by Claire's strange comment.

"Luck's pretty calm, considering…" Claire let his sentence trail off as he took one giant step towards Star, pushing her bang aside again to assess her forehead injury.

Star reacted by immediately taking a step back, nearly bumping into the wall.

"Um, could you not do that?" Star asked. Something about Claire made her nervous, and now that Luck had left that feeling intensified. If Star had to describe the feeling, it was like looking at a possessed doll; an innocent frame hiding something much more sinister.

"Huh? Yeah sure," Claire replied with a nonchalant shrug. He turned and began to walk down the hallway, continuing to speak to Star as he did so. Star followed, a few paces behind.

"But you really are strange, you know," Claire continued. "Going around with a broken leg one day but not the next."

Star stopped dead in her tracks, all color draining from her face. She swayed on the spot, for a moment looking like she was going to faint.

Claire had stopped as well. He turned to face her, a cocky grin on his face.

"I don't really care, I mean, it's not like you could ever beat me no matter what weird powers you have. But you've given Chane a bit of a scare, and since she's my fiancée I want to make sure she doesn't have to worry."

Star blinked a few times, trying to order her thoughts into a coherent form before she spoke.

"Chane… she knows…?" Star finally managed, her mouth dry.

"Yeah," Claire responded.

Star could not respond. Her mind was reeling. She didn't want Chane or Jacuzzi or Nice or any of them to know. And it wasn't just to protect them from the monsters that hid in her world, but it was to protect herself. Revealing her powers to others often brought Star more hate than understanding, and she didn't think she could stand having them hate her for the way she was born.

"I… I get it," Star said and then turned and headed for the door.

"Woah, hey, wait!" Claire called out, chasing after her. "Where are you going?"

Claire reached out a hand to stop her but instinctively drew it back before he had touched her shoulder. And a good thing he did. A second later his hand would have been skewered by the razor sharp spiked that protruded from Star's shoulder.

Almost as suddenly as they had appeared, they vanished as Star swiftly turned around, worry and fear etched on her face. She quickly glanced at Claire's hand to make sure he had not been harmed. Seeing that he was alright, a faint look of relief flickered across Star's face.

"Hey, look," Claire said, speaking again now that Star had stopped. "You don't have to run away. I'm not gonna hurt you or anything. Well, unless you hurt Chane… but then you're Luck's girl, and Luck would be pissed if I hurt you. And Keith, Keith doesn't like the idea of hurting girls and…"

Claire trailed off into a rambling soliloquy to himself, pondering a hypothetical situation. Star was too stunned to move. The man standing before her had been giving off an ominous aura before, but not he seemed almost harmless and rather silly… almost.

"What… do you want…?" Star asked. Perhaps she should have asked this question first, instead of trying to run away.

"Huh?" Claire was shaken from his verbal musings by Star's question. "Well… I guess what I wanna know is what you are."

"I'm… I'm a magician…"Star said slowly.

"So you do magic tricks?" Claire asked.

"Well… yes, but serious magic too. Like when I fixed my leg," Star replied.

"Why didn't you just say so from the start?"

"Because…" Star paused and took a deep breath before she continued. "Because when I tell other people it can make trouble for them. They can get hurt."

And they can hate and despise me Star added in her mind.

Claire stared at Star for a moment longer and then laughed.

Star looked confused and slightly insulted. She had just revealed one of her most closely kept secrets to this man and he was laughing at her.

"If that's it you don't have to worry," Claire said. "There's nothing in this world that can harm me, and I won't let anything harm Chane. So you don't have to worry at all."

Let out a bark of laughter at Claire's wild claim. While she was sure that he could probably take on any normal human, she wasn't so sure about being able to fight the inhuman. Of course Star did not know Claire at all. If she had she might have reconsidered her previous thought. But his bold claims had eased her worry a bit.

"Hey… um…" Star paused, not sure which name to use.

"Felix," Claire responded.

"Felix," Star continued. "Could you not tell anyone about this."

"I'm not gonna keep secrets from my beloved Chane, no matter how hard you beg," Claire told her.

"Well, I don't mind if you tell Chane, just, please don't tell anyone else?"

Claire shrugged.

"It's not my business to tell other people," he replied. There was a kind of finality in his tone that seemed to say the matter was closed and he really couldn't care anymore.

"Thanks…" Star said softly. She meant it. It wasn't often that she met people who didn't care about her being a magician. Well, normal people at any rate. Though she did not know it at the time Claire was about as far from normal as she was.

"Oh, by the way," Claire said as he left the foyer. "Let me know if anyone is messing with you. You're Luck's girl so I'll help ya out."

And with those parting words Claire was gone.

Star breathed a heavy sigh of relief. That had gone better than she had thought it would. She was even smiling a little, until something Claire had said came back to her, making her frown.

"Wait… Luck's girl…?" Star said slowly. Suddenly the full weight of the words dawned on her and her face colored.

Star took off down the hall after Claire shouting, "Hey! Who the hell decided that!?"


	19. Chapter 17

Star had left relatively early the next morning. She had told Chane she needed to do some shopping as she left, since Chane was already awake and Star did not want to rouse the entire house. But as she walked through the busy streets of Manhattan hindsight led Star to believe it might have been better to wait for someone to accompany her. She had absolutely no idea where to go to find what she was looking.

"Star…?" the voice caused Star to spin around.

Standing behind Star was Ennis.

"Oh, Ennis, hello," Star said, recognizing her.

"I thought that might have been you, but I wasn't sure," Ennis said, smiling at Star.

"To be honest, I think we're the only two girls in Manhattan wearing pants," Star replied, returning Ennis's smile. "Actually, I'm glad I ran into you."

"Really?" Ennis said, mildly surprised.

"Yeah," Star replied. "I need to get some shopping done, but I have no idea where to find anything. Could you help me out?"

"Sure," Ennis answered.

As Star and Ennis continued down the street together Ennis stole sideways glances at Star. Ennis could see a faint mark underneath Star's bangs. She was contemplating whether to ask about it or not when two earsplittingly familiar voices broke through the city din.

"Enniiiis!"

"Enniiiiiiiiis!"

The two turned to see a man and a woman dressed like a matador and a flamenco dancer come running towards them.

"Isaac, Miria!" Ennis cried out happily.

Isaac stopped just short of the two, but Miria continued forward, tackle hugging Ennis. Luckily her martial arts training gave Ennis the fortitude to withstand the loving onslaught.

"It's great to see you again Ennis," Isaac said.

"Yeah, so great!" Miria echoed.

"I thought you were going to be gone for much longer," Ennis said once Miria had released her from her arms.

"And who do we have here?" Isaac asked, turning to Star.

"Uh… hi…" Star said, awkwardly waving at the two. "My name's Star."

"Are you a friend of Ennis?" Miria asked.

Before Star could reply Isaac continued.

"Well any friend of Ennis is a friend of ours. My name is Isaac."

"And I'm Miria! Nice you meet you!"

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you," Star replied. The energy of the two had completely taken her by surprise.

"Ennis, I'm so happy you've found another friend," Miria said. She knew that Ennis was rather withdrawn and worried often about her ability to interact with other people.

Ennis smiled gently back at Miria.

"I'm happy too," she replied.

"Say, this touching reunion is lacking something," Isaac said.

"Really?" Miria asked.

"Yes," Isaac replied, striking a 'thinking' pose. "I believe what this reunion needs is food!"

"Food tastes better with friends!"

"That's it!" Isaac proclaimed. "We'll go to the Alveare!"

"Fantastic Isaac!"

Isaac threw and arm around Star's shoulders and Miria took Ennis by the hand. Then the two eccentric thieves began to lead their rather surprised friend down the street.

"Uh, wait a minute," Star said. "I know you guys are happy, meeting Ennis again and all, but I have some shopping that I really got to take care of first."

"Well why didn't you say so?" Isaac exclaimed. "Miria and I will help. After all, what was the saying, a friend in need is…"

Isaac trailed off apparently forgetting the rest of the saying.

"Someone you help!" Miria said, finishing off Isaac's sentence.

"Right right, of course Miria," Isaac said, not missing a beat. "And what kind of friends would we be if we didn't help another friend?"

"Not friends?" Miria asked.

"Right, and since we are not not-friends, we'll help!" Isaac finished.

Ennis smiled as she held back her laughter. These two were still as ludicrous as ever, but that was what she, and everyone else, loved about them. No one would ever want that to change.

"So we're off to…" Isaac began, but then stopped, not knowing what they were looking for.

"Hey Miria," Isaac said.

"Yes Isaac?"

"Where are we going?"

"Candles," Star butted in, before the two got going again. When Isaac and Miria were going full steam no one could get a word in edge-wise. "I need to buy some candles."

"To the candle-maker then!" Isaac proclaimed.

"So romantic!" Miria cried.

The two grabbed on to Star and began to move double time down the street, but they did not get very far before Ennis stopped them.

"Uh… Isaac, Miria…" She began as the trio halted. "The candle store is the other way."

"The nerve of that old man!" Isaac exclaimed when the four had left the candle store.

"The nerve!"

"It's fine, really," Star told the two. "The purple one will work just as well."

"But what kind of city is this if you can't get everything you need?" Isaac prompted.

"Good cities have everything!" Miria cried, waving her hands in a giant arch for emphasis.

"I'm happy with the purple candle," Star repeated. "Besides, I'm not too surprised they didn't have black."

"Why did you need a white and a black candle anyway?" Ennis asked.

Normally candles were bought in same-color sets, but Star was insistent on one black and one white candle. But black was not a popular color for candles, so Star had chosen a purple one instead. The store owner, however, had had a few words to say about Star, who was very firm in her choice. Isaac and Miria had happened to overhear him which is when the two launched into a tirade in defense of their new found companion.

"Well for, uh, balance," Star said, fumbling a bit for an answer. There was a reason Star had chosen the colors, but she didn't want to tell Ennis that she was trying to get rid of a poltergeist.

"Of course," Isaac answered, taking on the air of a knowledgeable professor lecturing a student. "In China they have this thing called a yin-yang and its white and black!"

"But why's that, Isaac?" Miria asked.

"I am so glad you asked, Miria my dear!" Isaac answered, delighted. "You see the white is for the good guys and the black is for the bad guys. What it means is that if you don't have a bad guy for the good guy to fight, then he isn't really a good guy! And if there isn't a good guy to defeat the bad guy, then he isn't really a bad guy! So you see, Miria, if there are no bad guys then the heroes can't be heroes!"

"Waah! That's amazing Isaac!" Miria replied, staring star-struck as Isaac.

"So you see Miria," Isaac continued, "by stealing things we are creating heroes!"

"We're being good guys by being bad guys!" Miria continued.

"Precisely!" Isaac exclaimed.

"That's wonderful!" Miria cried and the two clasp hands.

"Come, Miria!" Isaac said in his best 'hero' voice. "This world of villains needs more heroes!"

"We're going to make heroes!" Miria cried.

With Ennis and Star completely forgotten, the two took off down the street, leaving stunned bystanders wondering if this had been some sort of promotional for a theater company or play.

Star and Ennis stood still, temporarily stunned into silence. Then Star began to giggle.

"Those two really are something else," Star said, staring off in the direction which Isaac and Miria had run.

"Yes they are," Ennis agreed before lapsing into silent thought.

Does this mean there was some good in all those terrible things I've done? Ennis thought. Is it possible for there to be any redemption for my actions? Even just a little…

Ennis was startled from her thoughts by Star slapping her on the shoulder.

"No getting depressed. When you have lovable weirdoes like those two as friends you don't get to be depressed around them," Star said, giving Ennis a small smile.

"I suppose so," Ennis said, returning Star's smile. Yet again Star had somehow known what Ennis was feeling. "So tell me, what else were you looking for?"

"Let's see…" Star said, thinking. "Next I need dried sage…"

"There's a spice store around the corner," Ennis said.

"Great," Star replied and the two set off down the street.

"Is that everything?" Ennis asked a little while later."

"Yup, I got it all. Thanks a lot, Ennis. I wouldn't have been able to get all this stuff so fast without you," Star said.

"It… wasn't that special…" Ennis replied, blushing slightly.

"You might not think so, but it was a big help to me," Star emphasized. "I don't know much about this city, but if there's something I can help you out with, let me know."

"I will, thank you," Ennis replied. She felt a warmth inside of her. She had felt it a few times before, the first time when she had rescued Isaac and Miria from Dallas and his thugs almost three years ago.

"I need to go now," Star said, breaking into Ennis's thoughts. "So, I'll see you around."

Star waved slightly to Ennis as she turned and ran off down the street.

"See you around…" Ennis replied, waving weakly, her mind still preoccupied.

Ennis turned to leave herself when a troubling thought suddenly crossed her mind. Black and white candles… sage… chalk… it was a weird shopping list. But it wasn't the items themselves but what they meant that bothered Ennis. She closed her eyes and dug through her memories… well… not really her memories but the memories of the alchemist she had devoured. In Ennis's mind she saw flashed of book pages, old and worn. Alchemy books. Passages from those books flew through her mind. Notations on color symbolism, entries on the properties of various plants and then circles… chalk circles drawn on tables and floors.

Ennis felt her heart pound against her chest as all of this information flooded into her mind. Alchemy! Was Star really…? Ennis turned around quickly but there was absolutely no sign of the mysterious girl on the street. The only one left was Ennis, standing rooted to the spot as a maelstrom of emotions whirled and crashed around inside of her.


End file.
